Tarkheena Crafts

Tutorial: "Naughty Swine" toy

2012-02-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

Although I own neither a smart phone nor anything manufactured by Apple, I've been enjoying Angry Birds for several months now. When I stumbled across a couple of crochet patterns for the title characters, I had to give them a try, and they turned out very nicely if I do say so myself. They also required 4-6 hours of work each. Also, I didn't have any green yarn, but I Did have some scraps left from a green Dollar Store fleece blanket and other projects that were just the right color, so I decided to give sewing a piggy a try.

OK, so he's not nearly as cool as the crocheted version. But he was quick (60 - 90 minutes) and easy, and Very cheap as everything came from my stash.

He's also about the same size as my crocheted birds - roughly 4 or 5 inches wide and tall.

I have it in the back of my head to make several more and create a live-version game for my kid's upcoming 3rd birthday...

If you'd like to make your own, here's how!

Materials

1. Medium Green fleece, at least 8 x 12 inches. I used a Dollar Tree fleece blanket from the baby aisle. (You could also use ordinary felt.)

2. Felt or Fleece scraps in light green, black, and white

3. Needle and Thread or Sewing Machine

4. Fiber-Fill

5. (Optional) Glue

6. (Optional) Beans or Rice for weight

Instructions

0. Put babies to bed. This is going to take a little time and concentration! ;)

1. Create a pattern. The easiest way to sew a basic ball shape is to use a baseball pattern, consisting of two identical figure-eight shaped pieces. I was going to try to eyeball it, but thankfully I did a quick search and found this tutorial on wikiHow.

I only did a couple of things differently. First, I made a pattern using a piece of paper so I could make additional piggies. Second, when I rounded the edges, I used the edge of my round object (the peanut butter lid) to get a nice, accurate curve. Finally, when I cut the pattern out, I first carefully folded it into quarters (length and width-wise) so it would be symmetrical.

2. Pin the pattern to your fleece or felt, or trace around it, and cut 2.

3. Cut nose, eyes, and ear pieces out of scrap felt and fleece.

I eyeballed everything, which worked out fine because the piggy faces in the game are frequently slightly asymmetrical. But feel free to be more careful and exact than I was! :)

I went ahead and glued the face to one of the round ends of my figure eights. However, it could just as easily have waited until after I'd sewn the ball. The advantage of waiting is you'll have a better idea of exactly where you want to place the face, but if you're going to stitch, it's easier to do when you have access to both sides of the fabric. In my case, I glued everything 'cause I was lazy. I did add some stitching to the nose after sewing the rest of the item, just for extra strength.

4. Carefully fold your fleece figure eights together and pin the *wrong sides* together.

4b. Optionally, pin your ears into the seams near the top of the face - making sure that they are pointing inside (that is, to the right side) of the piggy.

I did not do this, because I had not decided exactly where to place them when I started. Most pictures of the piggies show them a little close together than the side seams will put them. However, the seam is by far the easiest place to sew them in, because the seam is easier to hide and they are easy to set upright. If you attach them elsewhere, you might have to experiment with the shape of the ear base. You could possibly snip a very short notch in the exact center of the ear base, creating two flaps that could be stitched down separately. Or, just put 'em in the seam like I did!

5. Sew the edges together either by hand or by machine, being sure to leave 1-2 inches at the end for turning right-side out and stuffing.

Turn him right-side out.

6. Optionally, add a handful of rice or dried beans to the bottom of your piggy to give him some weight.

7. Stuff piggy with fiber-fill

8. Using the ladder stitch, close the remaining gap.

(Note: The link above is to a fairly simplistic diagram of the ladder stitch, which is the best I could find on short notice. If you need extra pointers, I recommend searching YouTube for a better tutorial.)

If you haven't sewn on your ears yet, do so now.

And there he is! Whip up some fowl foes, and have yourself a little target practice!

Gimp vs. Photoshop Elements 8

2012-01-31T18:10:00.001-08:00

This year for Christmas my dear husband bought me a Bamboo tablet, which lets me use a pen or my fingers as input devices on a approx. 6 in square surface. It's a fun toy, and it also happened to ship with a "free" copy of Photoshop Elements 8. A not-insignificant part of me was reluctant to install it and thereby give up my "geek cred" of using 100% free image software. But my other voice told that one to "stuff it" and give it a try. 'Cause let's be honest: Gimp has some shortcomings, especially when it comes to text editing.

After about a month of using it, I've moved from "I Hate this program and cannot believe anyone can accomplish anything with it" to "Well, it does do Some things pretty nicely." Unsurprisingly, a lot of my initial hate was just not knowing where to look for certain common functions I use in Gimp all the time. That said, there definitely Are some strengths and weaknesses in both programs - I cannot imagine I'll be uninstalling Either in the foreseeable future.

I thought it might be helpful to others considering purchasing software for their digital scrapping to see a little run down of pros and cons when compared against Gimp.

First, the things I like

Adobe PSE 8 Good Stuff

Cntrl-V automatically pastes the clipboard as a new layer. No more navigating through two layers of pull-down menus! (On the downside, I can't figure out - not that I've really tried - how to paste something onto the Current layer. Every once in a while this is desired.)
You can drag and drop entire layers between documents by either (a) dragging from the source document itself, or (b) dragging the layer icon from the layer dialog. Really handy!
By default, the PSE equivalent of "snap to grid" is turned on. When you drag elements around, they are magnetically attracted to a (fairly course) grid, and also the edges of the document. You can move them off these predefined points - and off the sides if desired - but it's pretty easy to line things up when you want to. This feels very intuitive, and I've definitely gotten used to it. (Be sure to read the "Cons" below for the flip side, though.)
Auto layer selection! Click on the element you want to edit inside the document, and it is automatically selected in the layer dialog! Gimp has very limited auto-layer selection: you can Move a layer that is not active by clicking on it (when that option is chosen), but doing so does not actually change the active layer. And before you can copy it, apply a shadow, etc. you must navigate through the layer dialog and find the layer you want to edit. When you're dealing with dozens of layers, this can be a bit frustrating.
Layer handling is more flexible, powerful, and intuitive. In Gimp you can "link" layers together such that when you move, rotate, or etc. they act as one. But you can have only one "set." PSE allows multiple sets - you could, for instance, link a journal block and its text as one set, and a photo with its frame as a second set. You can also create temporary groupings by control-clicking several layers in the layer dialog. They act as a set until you click another layer not in the set.
As expected, Text Editing is pretty nice! You can apply bold, italic, and underlined text styles - which are completely inaccessible in Gimp. You can change size, line spacing, color, and even Font inside a single text layer. Moreover, you can continue to edit the text in the layer even after resizing, or rotating. And, you can change the text orientation to vertical rather than horizontal - not that I've found a need for this yet. About the only thing I don't see that it can do is type on a curve. Still, quite an improvement over Gimp's functional but very basic text handling.
Layer Styles. This is a concept that does not exist in Gimp at all. If you want a drop-shadow or a bevel or whatever in Gimp, you have to use a "filter" to create it, and it is typically assigned its own layer. You can merge the layers afterwards (or even automatically in some cases), but that does prevent you from modifying the source layer again. It's "glued down." In practice, I save applying any sorts of effects in Gimp for the very end, when all elements are placed as desired.
In contrast, PSE applies shadows and bevels (plus a host of other - IMHO far less useful - things) as "layer styles." These may be applied or removed from layers with the click of one button, and - most importantly - are automatically modified with the layer! In other words, if you change the layer's size from 2 in to 4, the shadow changes with it. Or if you change it from a circle to a square, the shadow changes it with it. If you rotate it 90 degrees, the shadow goes with it - and continues to fall in the "right" place. (Again, in Gimp you'd need to delete and then recreate the shadow layer if you made a change to the "casting" layer.") This is easy to get used to!
There are some fun tools available for drawing various pre-set shapes, or stamping images (in a variety of colors and/or sizes) on the page. I haven't spent much time looking into these - I am pretty sure this is the "brush" functionality, though, which as expected is considerably more powerful (if not any more intuitive) than Gimp's.
The "auto-correct" options for tuning lighting, contrast, color cast, etc. on photos is pretty good. Better than Gimp's, I think - at least a little.
There are a whole lot more "artsy" filters, layer styles, and whatnot than in Gimp by default (although you can certainly add them after the fact if you're motivated.)
On the whole, PSE is undeniably Faster than Gimp. I've gotten used to delays measured in seconds - sometimes Several seconds - when doing fancy things like applying shadows, bevels, unsharp mask, rotating a large layer, etc. These delays are all but nonexistent in PSE.

Now, the Bad

If you're picking up PSE after developing serious proficiency in Gimp, there's going to a lot that annoys you. You're going to think some very basic options (rotating or mirroring layers, for instance) are missing because they're hidden in a very different menu. Most of the keyboard shortcuts are different (or missing.) Things are simply not where you expect them. I am not going to focus on this stuff, because for the most part it falls under the heading "learning curve" not "weakness." Give it a couple of weeks and three or four projects and you'll figure most of that out. What follows, on the other hand, is stuff that PSE simply cannot do as well as Gimp.

To sum up a whole class of shortcomings in one bullet: PSE does not provide the Explicit, Exact control over size, placement, and a whole host of other features that Gimp provides. There does not appear to be a method for creating a selection box of (for instance) exactly 134 x 83 pixels by any means but extremely careful mousework. I finally found a hidden-by-default panel that displays information such as the x and y coordinates and size of the current selection, but this is read-only. I haven't found a way to draw a selection of a certain aspect ratio. Cropping is similarly kludgy. There are options for locking in an aspect ratio, but if there's a way to set arbitrary ones, I haven't found it. Guides do exist, but cannot be created ac hoc by dragging from a side or top. They can be created only by giving a specific pixel (not percentage) location - leaving you to do the math in your head if you want cross-hairs centered on your document. Frankly, this drives me batty. Gimp leaves PSE in the proverbial dust with its fine-grained control over practically everything. I am sure some people find Gimp's options overwhelming. But they're also very powerful!
There are no separate "resize" or "rotate" tools: the control handles are built into the layer select rectangle. While highly intuitive, again, the fine grained control is missing: you can't rotate exactly 10 degrees, or resize a layer by 50%, or to exactly 3 inches.
Text editing is not without its foibles. I have not managed to get the hang of drawing the bounding box initially, and if you make it too small and type off the end of it, that text cannot be selected via the mouse or Cntrl-A command. You have to resize the text box so that everything is visible before you can operate on those words - for instance, to resize them. Annoying.
For reasons that defy imagination, you cannot use the arrow keys to scroll through your layers in the layer dialog: you must use the scroll bar and your mouse / input device of choice. This can slow you down a bit.
Layer Styles are not without their shortcomings, either. (This is an expansion of my general complaint under bullet one.) I just this very moment found a hidden menu under Layer -> Layer Style -> Style Settings where you can control the angle of light and several other bits for shadows, bevels, and a couple other layer styles. These are not quite as extensive as the options for a third-party bevel and shadow filter set I have installed for Gimp, but they Do exist. And the defaults do cover the 80, or even 90% scenario with their presets, so again, it's not a huge deal.
The lack of options actually may be a little more frustrating in some of the more complex layer styles. I mentioned I haven't found these very useful, and this is true, but there are a couple fun ones that can very easily create "tacs," "stickers," or other shiny, 3D elements. These tend to be offered, however, in just a handful of colors - you cannot say "Oh, I want this cool Neon effect, but I want to use the specific green I've got elsewhere on my page."
There does not appear to be a color-select tool (i.e. select all red or reddish pixels in this layer.) Similarly, there do not seem to be tools / filters for changing the color of an entire image / element. I frequently use Gimp to recolor either entire papers or embellishments, or specific regions thereof. If PSE can even do this, I can't figure out how. I mean, I guess you could use a (painfully created) layer mask, fill with a solid color, and change the blend mode, but this is not nearly as straightforward as Gimp's "colorize" or "colorify" options, nor does it offer the same level of control.
Ironically, the file manager is really annoying. I say "ironically," because it's simply the Windows file manager, like every other MS and most non MS products inherit, Gimp being a notable exception. But what Gimp's file management (by which I mean the dialogs where you open and save documents) lacks in polish, it makes up for in functionality - specifically the two features of being able to define "favorites" or "bookmarks," and the default behavior of starting the "open" or "save" dialogs in the folder of the current document.
To give you an example, I have both my scrapbook pages and my scrapbook elements in fairly deep, and very Separate folder structures. A fairly common use case is to want to open another paper or embellishment from the same collection as one you're already using. In Gimp, you simply switch to the document window of an element from that collection and hit Cntrl-O. The Open dialog appears, oriented on the collection's folder. Not (necessarily) so PSE. Its Open dialog will always be oriented to the last folder from which you opened something. If that happened to be a page from your scrapbook, or an element from a different collection, too bad.
This is even worse when it comes to saving, because at least the Windows "favorites" behavior is accessible when opening files. Those favorites are Not displayed on the Save dialog, so if you want to save your scrapbook page after opening an embellishment from a random collection, you're going to have to do all that navigation by hand. Irritating, to say the least. I also find Gimp's "favorites" behavior more convenient and customizable than the Windows behavior to begin with.
The error messages are surprisingly generic and unhelpful. I suddenly can't remember specifically what I was doing, but I was trying to perform some sort of an operation when I got a pop-up that said something to the effect of "'Operation x' could not be completed because of a program error." I honestly thought the filter or whatever I was trying to do was buggy - or that my whole program was about the crash. Later I realized that I was trying to do that thing on the wrong layer - one on which it actually made no sense. In other words, that error message should actually have read "You can't do Operation 'x' on this layer because it is a text layer" (or whatever the reason actually was. Like I said, I forgot. Still!) Gimp actually tends to have error messages like "Can't copy because there are no pixels selected on the active layer" - that is, useful, non-generic stuff. I'm actually surprised at this, given that good messaging and documentation is one thing I really expect in a product I've paid for.
There are about a dozen other minor irritations that are running around in the back of my head - the "border" command on a selection automatically feathers, and cannot be unfeathered. Moving the various open document windows around inside the program is surprisingly non-intuitive - they tend to suddenly "stick" to things or change size or do something I simply don't understand, etc. There is no "crop to selection" or "auto-crop" option on a layer; in fact, if you select a portion of a layer that extends past the canvas boundaries, invert that selection, and then delete, the *unseen part of the layer does not go away!* If you drag that layer around later, you'll find your "deleted" pixels showing up around the canvas edges! But I think I'll stop now as I've covered most of the big ones - especially those without clear work-arounds.

To sum up the differences, strengths, and weaknesses of these two programs, I will simply state what should be pretty obvious: PSE is meant for the "consumer" market. That is, folks with limited experience with computers in general and full featured graphics editors in general who just want to get something fun made. Therefore it is strongly oriented towards intuitive operation with a de-emphasis on fine-grained control. Gimp, by contrast, is meant for the (thrifty) geek who wants to be able to do Absolutely Anything, and (just as importantly) knows exactly what she wants to do, likes to do a little math in her head, and exercise specific control over what she's doing, even if it takes a few more clicks - and a lot more of a learning curve.

As I mentioned at the beginning I will not be uninstalling either program in the foreseeable future. I imagine that I will continue to use PSE for a very free-form, text-heavy, small format scrapbook that I am working on this year because of its intuitive layer selection, rotating, resizing, and grouping, and its superior text editing.

But for my full format (12x12) pages, or any page that I am "scraplifting" or using someone else's page map, I will probably be sticking with Gimp because of its fine grained-controls for object placement and scale, selection placement, cropping, and etc.

Of course, Gimp has the advantage of being able to both read and write the PSD format, so I technically have the option of doing the nit-picky layout in Gimp and then moving to PSE for the finishing touches and journaling. It remains to be seen how often that really happens, though.

Simple Christmas Candle Holders

2011-12-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

Tonight we are making striped Christmas candle holders. Actually, the "Christmas" part is optional: choose different paint colors and you'll have something you can use all year round.

Extra bonus: this project is simple enough to share with an elementary school aged child!

Here's our finished product - and seriously, it looks Much nicer in real life, especially when lit in a dark room.

Materials:

* 2-3 bottles of Plaid brand Gallery Glass paint in colors of your choice. (Or other brands if you can get your hands on 'em!)

* Plain votive candle holders with flat (not faceted) sides. Your choice of "shot glass" or "brandy snifter" shaped.

* Wax paper to protect your table surface

* Sharp craft knife.

I purchased all my supplies at either Joann's or Michael's, although the glass paint has gone a little out of style recently and may not be widely available. It should run less than $3/tube.

The candle holders should be between $0.50 and $1

Instructions:

If you haven't worked with glass paint before, this is a great starter project. A couple years back I posted a brief tutorial and tip sheet on using the stuff if you want more help or ideas:

http://tarkheenacrafts.blogspot.com/2009/04/stained-glass-stick-ons-for-windows.html

1. Place waxed paper on your work surface. (Do not substitute newspaper: you need something that the paint will peel away from easily.)

2. Turn your candle holder upside down

3. Using the first paint color, squeeze a small amount at the top of the candle holder, and watch it run down the sides. Continue squeezing lines around the circumference of the holder every half inch or so. When you've made it all the way around, go back and add paint *at the top* to any lines that didn't drip as far as you'd like. I like a mix of different line lengths myself.

4. Repeat step 3 with your additional color(s).

5. Allow piece to dry at least overnight, in a safe place well sheltered from children and curious cats.

6. When thoroughly dry, carefully peel the candle holder from the waxed paper and turn right-side up. Use a sharp craft knife to (again, carefully!) cut off the "blobs" of paint that collected at the rim of the glass.

7. Add a candle and you have an instant gift for friends or family!

Hint: when packaging for storage or gifting, wrap the candle holder in waxed paper first, not tissue or newsprint. Ordinary paper will stick to the paint even when completely dry, especially if left in contact for a long period, and could ruin your piece.

Mini Crochet Christmas Tree

2011-11-27T21:32:00.001-08:00

Here's another quick n' easy crochet ornament for you. I am developing these to decorate my Vintage Granny-Square Christmas Stockings.

Materials
A few yards each of yarn in green, brown, and your choice of contrasting color

Tools
Crochet hook (mine is "G" gauge)
Scissors

Stitch Key
ch = Chain
hdc = half double crochet
dhdc = decrease half double crochet *
sl = slip stitch

* Thanks to the author of this Baby Cloche pattern for the following description of the "decrease half double crochet:"

To dhdc, (yarn over, insert hook in next hdc, yo, draw loop through) two times, yo, draw through all 5 loops on hook]

Put another way, you are performing the first half of a half-double-crochet in the first stitch, but instead of completing with yarn-over and pulling through the two loops, instead yo and insert hook into the *next* hdc stitch and proceed as normal for another hdc, finishing by pulling the yarn through all five loops.

Clear as mud? Look it up on you-tube! ;)

Instructions

Tree

Constructed from the bottom up.

Row 1: ch 11, turn, and hdc in second ch from end. hdc in remaining 9 ch stitches for 10 total

Row 2: ch 1 and turn, dhdc in first two hdc stitches. hdc in next 6 stitches. dhdc in last two stitches. (8 total stitches)

Row 3: ch 1 and turn, dhdc in first two hdc stitches. hdc in next 4 stitches. dhdc in last two stitches (6 total stitches)

Row 4: ch 1 and turn, dhdc in first two hdc stiches. hdc in next 2 stitches. dhdc in last two stitches (4 total stitches)

Row 5: ch 1 and turn, dhdc in each of the four stitches. (2 stitches total.)

Row 6: ch 1 and turn, dhdc in the two stitches. (1 stitch total.)

Star

Foundation: ch 4 and join with sl

Row 1: Ch 2 (counts as first hdc), then sl in ring. Repeat 1 hdc, 1 sl four more times for a total of 5 sets. Join with sl stitch.

Attach to tree top.

Trunk

Attach brown yarn in 5th stitch at bottom of tree and ch 2.

Depending on preference, hdc in next one or two stitches.

If desired, ch 2, turn, and complete second row.

Toddler Toys: I Spy Jar

2011-11-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

Anyone who actually follows this blog, poor soul, will have noticed that I am all over the map lately. You never know if you're going to get a digi-scrap post, recipe, toddler tip, or even a crochet pattern. I'll give you a clue to the common factor: practically everything can be done in 30 mn or less, with a distracting child or two in the room!

Today's second project: The "I Spy" Jar.

For several years, a couple of "Find It" games have been showing up at our annual church retreat. Filled with colorful plastic "sand," these approx. 12 inch tubes also contain about two dozen small plastic objects which may be revealed by carefully shaking and rolling the container. The object is to check off each hidden object from the list - including the always elusive penny. They're surprisingly diverting for adults and kids alike. They're also about $25 from the manufacturer!

My version is essentially free.

Materials

1. Sturdy clear plastic container with lid (I used a small Parmesan cheese container)

2. A handful of small toys, buttons, beads, coins, marbles, and other found objects of your choice

3. Enough rice to fill the container to within about 3/4 of an inch of the top.

4. Heavy tape (duct or electrical) to seal lid, or glue if you want to make it really permanent.

5. (Optional) Laminated checklist of all hidden objects.

Instructions (like you need 'em!)

Combine rice and found objects in jar. Seal lid with heavy tape or glue.

If desired, create a checklist of objects to be found and challenge your kid (husband?!) to complete it during a long car trip. If your child is a pre-reader, consider photographing each object and making a pictorial checklist.

(I know, it could be Much prettier. The duct tape is quite unattractive. If you need it to look nice and Don't need it to stand up to small children, you could glue a piece of pretty scrapbook paper around the taped edge, but be sure not to obscure too much of the tube or you rather defeat the purpose!)

My two year old actually played with this thing for 15 minutes tonight despite having entered the "manic" phase of tiredness.
A teacher friend of mine thought they may also be useful for some of her older students who just can't sit still. Or, depending on how much of a sense of humor your guests have, consider placing one in the bathroom during a party in lieu of those dated magazines! :)

UPDATE

I made several of these as Christmas gifts for kids in our lives, and here's what I did to make them prettier

1. I dyed the rice so it wasn't simply boring white. Since these were Christmas gifts, I went with red (OK, pink) and green, but the sky's the limit.

Here's a blog explaining how to use water colors to dye rice: http://homemadeserenity.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-dont-you-make-rainbow-rice.html

I went a different route and used food color and vinegar - essentially the same method as dying easter eggs. Mix water and vinegar about 50/50, color with food coloring, and add only liquid enough to barely wet the rice you are dying. Use a jar or a zip-lock, and mix it around well, then let it sit for several minutes to get darker.

My method yielded far paler results than the watercolor option above, though.

The important part is to let it dry REALLY well (I spread it on a cookie sheet and put it in a warm oven for a while) before sealing it in the I-Spy jar. We don't want mold!

2. I glued, rather than duct-taped, the lids.

Honestly, this is a dicier proposition than it seems it ought to be. I had very bad luck when trying to hot-glue a metal lid to a glass jar for another project (the glue was too thick, interfered with the threading, and really didn't stick to such non-porous surfaces very well), so this time I didn't even attempt it. I used Elmer's and let it dry over night. It Seemed to be holding, but I think a really determined child could get it off. Super glue would probably be your best bet.

3. Before filling the jars, I photographed the group of items that would be included. I printed it at about 3x4 inches, laminated it, hole-punched it, and tied it to the jar with a stretchy cord. The plan is for the kids to use the card as a challenge, and to stretch out the game a little - "can you find the red bird? No, that's the blue one: keep looking!" Theoretically dry-erase markers or crayons could be used to mark off each item as it is located. You could have your kids race, use it as a "time out" timer ("You must find 10 items before you can get up from that chair!"), etc, etc.

Of course, if your target audience is able to read, you could simply make a text list of the items. That's how the commercial jars are labeled.

Quick n' Easy Crochet Wreath Ornament

2011-11-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

I've picked up my hook again this season: my first project was my daughter's Christmas Stocking, but I got inspired and starting making hats. Finally, I started visualizing ornaments I could add to my stockings. Grammy's were made of felt, but I'm feeling more comfy with the hook this year, so here's a cute little wreath for your tree, hat, headband, or you name it!

Materials:

Yarn in green and contrasting color of your choice

Tools:

Crochet hook (I used size G)

Scissors

Key:

ch = chain

hdc = half double crochet

dc = double crochet

sc = single crochet

sl = slip

st = stitch

Here's those instructions again, in case you can't quite see 'em in the photo

1. ch 12 and join with sl st to form ring

2. (Round 1) ch 2 (counts as first hdc), 12 more hdc in ring; sl st to join

3. (Round 2 - eyelet) ch 3 (counts as first dc + ch 1). dc + ch in each hdc st below; sl to join

4. (Round 3 - scallop edge) sc, hdc, sc in space formed by ch 1 below. sl st in top of dc. Repeat in each ch 1 space for 13 total.

5. Chain 50 to 70 in contrasting color. Weave in and out of eyelets in row 2 and tie bow.

Optional: Glue on felt or sequin "ornaments" as desired.

Recipe: Salsa Sausage Sandwich Braid (Adapted)

2011-11-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Another adapted recipe today, this time from my favorite paper cookbook "Family Feasts for $75 a Week" by Mary Ostyn. The original recipe may - and should be! - seen here.

I cannot say enough good things about this practical, frugal cookbook. Seriously, go buy it!

In the meantime, I've made the sausage braid about 3 times now, and while the concept is good, we weren't thrilled with the flavor of the filling, which tends towards the bland. Part of this, I freely confess, is undoubtedly because I rarely have on hand (or remember to buy) things like green onions, fresh parsley, and bell pepper, which are therefore left out of the recipe. The modifications I've made speak both to our flavor preferences and compensate for what is most likely to be in the fridge or freezer.

Ingredients

1 pound bulk sausage (the stuff that just looks like ground beef), pork, chicken, or whatever you like.

1/2 cup chopped onion (I use frozen pre-chopped. No tears!)

1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper (optional)

2 green onions, chopped. (optional)

1 clove garlic, minced (I buy pre-minced in a big jar and just put in a large spoonful.)

4 ounces cream cheese, cubed

1/2 - 2/3 C salsa, your favorite brand

2 loaves frozen bread or pizza dough, thawed, or make your own pizza dough in the machine (recipe below.)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Smoked paprika or your favorite seasoning blend (I use one called "South African Smoke" from Trader Joe's)

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Brown sausage in a frying pan along with vegetables (except green onions if using) until meat is cooked and veggies are tender.

2. Drain fat if necessary. Add green onions, cubed cream cheese, and salsa to skillet and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.

3. If using commercial frozen dough, knead both lumps into one. Roll out to at least 10x12 inches (I usually end up more like 12x16) and place on a baking sheet.

4. Spread sausage mixture down the middle, leaving 3 inches to each side and 1 inch at the end bare.

On each long side, cut 3/4-inch-wide strips 3 inches into center of dough, right up to where the filling starts.

5. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle, forming a braid over the filling. Crimp the ends of the dough to close the ends of the braid.

6. Brush loaf with beaten egg, then sprinkle generously with smoked paprika or your favorite seasoning blend.

7. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly, then cut into 1 to 1.5 inch slices.

Feeds about 4 adults.

Tips and Justifications:
I like to consider myself reasonably frugal and above-average in the kitchen (if not anything like a gourmet.) So I'm not immune to the argument that a premium is being paid for the convenience of frozen, sliced onions and refrigerated, diced garlic. However, I have lost track of the half-onions I've thrown away, not to mention the dishes not made because I haven't got one in the house. I think it evens out. Ditto with the garlic, which is even cheaper. (Also, I really hate processing both!)

I also buy a lot of frozen bell pepper and onion mix for recipes like this one. Yes, there's a fair bit of cheap onion in with the expensive peppers. But look at the price of bell pepper most times of year - contrasted with about $1.65 for 12 oz frozen!

Bread Machine Pizza Dough Recipe

(origin forgotten - online somewhere!)

1 1/3 C warm water

2 T oil

1-2 T honey or sweetener of choice

1 t salt

2 C white bread flour

2 C whole wheat bread flour

2 t (or one packet) yeast

Add to machine in order listed and choose the "dough" cycle.

Makes about 15-20% more than you need for one sausage braid
(I rolled out the left-over bits, brushed them with egg, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and baked right along with the sandwich.)

Alternately, makes enough for two, 14 inch pizzas - or one and an order of cinnamon rolls!

Also freezes well, but allow 3-5 hours for thawing in the fridge, and another to rise at room temp.

Simple Pumpkin Molasses Cookies - Adapted from Bakers Royale

2011-11-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

This recipe is adapted with only a few modifications from this one at Bakers Royale. All credit should go to her, but my modifications were key enough I thought they should be written down - for my own benefit if no-one else's!

Every year about this time I go on a pumpkin kick. This year I've even taken the wild step of rendering my own puree. My favorite applications are baked goods - primarily cookies and breads. Usually I fill everything full of chocolate chips, but these cookies are an actually welcome exception. The end product are soft, cakey, and taste

Makes about 30 one and a quarter inch cookies. | Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheet with parchment paper, or lightly coat with cooking spray.

Ingredients

½ cup of butter, melted (not hot)

1 large egg

1 1/4 cup of granulated sugar

½ cup of dark brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of unsulphured molasses

¾ cup pumpkin puree

2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon allspice (optional)

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of flour

Instructions

Combine the melted butter, egg and sugar in a large bowl. Mix with hand-mixer for about 1 minute. Add in pumpkin puree, molasses, and spices; mix for another 1 to combine. Add in baking soda and salt and mix to combine.

Using a sturdy spatula or wooden spoon, add in flour into wet mixture. Using a small ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment lined (or lightly greased) cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are a slightly darker than the top.

Tips

If, by any crazy chance, you are the sort of person who makes her own puree from fresh pumpkins, you probably already know that it tends to be wetter than canned. (Especially if you have foolishly added even more water to help it go through the blender!) Be prepared to add anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 C extra flour to make the dough stiff enough to hold its shape.

Todder Tools Quicky: Build a cheap faucet extender

2011-11-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

My 2-year-old needs to get used to washing his hands in the sink. The problem is, he's *short!* An adult can hold him up, but usually at the expense of squishing his belly, and getting water everywhere at the same time. Yesterday we picked up a couple of fairly tall plastic step stools at Ikea ($8, not available online.) They get him most of the way, but he can still just barely get his fingertips into the water.

Google quickly reveals that I am not the first person to have this problem: a neat little product called the "Aqueduck" is on the market. It's simply a duckbill-shaped piece of plastic that attaches via a shnazzy silicone sleeve to your faucet, channeling the stream of water out another 6 inches or so. Simple, elegant - and expensive! (About $13 plus shipping - and I needed two!) Certainly I ought to be able to jury-rig something for a fraction of the cost. While one part of my brain was planning a trip to the hardware store, the other part noticed that he was playing with his "glow sword" - just a glow-stick with a dagger-shaped handle we got him for trick-or-treating last night at the Dollar Tree. (Ironically, the stupid glow stick didn't even work!) He'd managed to fling it across the room, snapping the handle into two halves on impact. He demanded that I fix it... while I noticed that it was roughly the right length and width to serve as a faucet extender. A piece of electrical tape later we had our solution.

Not elegant, not permanent (I don't expect the tape to last long - it'll probably have to be changed at least as often as the sink is cleaned), but it does the job. Total cost: $.50 per faucet, plus the kid gets to play with a glowing sword before you make it! (OK, $.51 if you count the tape, which is also available at the Dollar Tree, of course!)

If you don't happen to have a glowing sword lying about, I expect there are dozens of objects in your house - probably many in your recycle bin - that could accomplish the same goal. I considered a plastic water bottle or yogurt container. But any of these ideas seemed to need careful scissors work and had the further risk of sharp edges. This does it in one step.

Tutorial: Using Photoshop Templates in Gimp

2011-08-26T16:56:00.001-07:00

The phrase of the day is "Quick and Dirty!"

When I was new to digital scrapbooking, I got excited about using pre-made layered templates as shortcuts for my layouts. But I quickly found that the end product didn't live up to the billing in Gimp: it actually took me Longer to lay out my photos using the template than would have otherwise.
The problem is that the instructions for Photoshop would say something like "Drag your photos onto the layout and create a layer clipping map..." Whoops, start over! You can't drag photos from canvas to canvas in Gimp, nor is there a "clipping map" equivalent. I tried using guides, painstakingly lined up by hand, but it just added to the time factor. So I gave up and went back to eye-balling for the most part.

Since those early days, I've learned several techniques that make it possible to actually save time using a template. So I'm using some of the time I saved on my niece's vacation book to share them with you.

To complete this tutorial, you will need Gimp, the number 6 template downloaded from CreatingKeepsakes.com here, and 3 to 5 photos that can be cropped into a square.

For advanced users, here in a nutshell is what we're going to do.

1. Resize and rotate the template if necessary.

2. Change the transparency of all photo placeholder layers to about 50%.

3. Crop and re-size your photos to the appropriate aspect ratio and *approximate* size of the placeholder.

4. Paste photo as a new layer Under the appropriate placeholder and drag into position. Make sure a few pixels of your photo overlap on all four edges.

5. Select the alpha channel of the placeholder; then invert the selection.

6. On the photo layer, delete the selection (thereby "clipping" everything that is not under the placeholder.)

7. Delete or hide the placeholder layer.

8. Repeat.

Now, for those of you who need a little more explanation, the Details...

(Note: You can click on any screenshot to see a [slightly] larger version.)

Step 1: Open and re-size the template.

The file opens as a layered document with nicely labeled layers for each photo or journaling slot.

Unfortunately, it is 2400 x 2400 pixels, which is only 8 inches when printed at 300 dpi. Since I want 12x12 inch pages, and since the shapes are very simple and will not pixelize, I re-sized to 3600 pixels square. The command is under Image -> Scale Image

Step 2: (Optional) Apply your own background paper and rotate template.

I wanted a little texture in the background, so I open a piece of paper from my collection. I copied it, then switched over to the template and selected the background layer. I pasted it right over the top of the existing color, then chose "anchor layer" from the Layer menu.
I also wanted the large photo to be in the upper right rather than lower left, so I chose "Image" -> Transform -> Rotate 180.

Step 3: Make all of the photo slots semi-transparent.

In the layers dialog, select each of the white layers (labeled "Big photo," "top right," etc.) and change their transparency to about 50%. (Exactness is not important here.) This is so you can see through them when positioning your photos.

Step 4: Crop and scale photo for first slot

Now we need to make our photo Approximately the right size and shape for our template.

This is where we get really quick and dirty, and where the template really pays off by eliminating a lot of math and exact line-ups.

Tip: There's no automatic way that I know of to get Gimp to cough up the exact pixel dimensions of a layer, more's the pity. In this case, eye-balling the template tells us we need roughly square photos. To get a closer measurement, I use the Rectangle Select tool to draw around one of the photo slots. When I'm done I see on the Toolbox palate that the size is 929x913. Since I wasn't exact, we probably have a 930x930 or so. We'll crop and re-size our photo to, say, 950x950 and that'll be close enough.

Set the Crop tool aspect ratio to Fixed, 1:1 and crop your photo. Then re-size using Image -> Scale to 950x950.

Tip: While cropping your photo is not technically necessary given the rest of the technique I will demonstrate, it's still a good idea: you want to know that you can get the important parts of your photo in the frame.

Step 5: Copy photo and paste as new layer into template

The command is under Edit -> Paste As -> New Layer.

Hint: In the layers palate, select the layer directly below the one you wish to place your photo on. If you forget, go ahead and drag the layer down to that position in the layers palate after pasting.

Step 6: Drag photo underneath the photo placeholder and center

Again, quick and dirty is the name of the game here. This is why we've made the placeholder layers semi-transparent: you want to make sure that some small portion of your photo overlaps the template on all four sides.

Step 7: Select the Alpha portion of the placeholder

Here's where the time-saving magic occurs!

With your photo positioned under the placeholder, select the placeholder layer in the palate and right-click. Choose "Alpha to Selection" (The "alpha channel" is the portion of the layer that is transparent. If there's no transparency, it just selects everything in the layer. Very handy!)

Step 8: Invert the selection and delete

In the layers palate, select your photo layer again.

From the select menu choose "Invert," or click "Cntrl-I"

After double-checking that you're on your photo layer, hit the delete key.

Everything not covered by the placeholder layer disappears! You even get the slightly rounded corner. Shnazzy!

Step 9: Delete (or hide) the placeholder layer

In the Layers palate, either delete (using the garbage can icon at the bottom) or hide (using the "eye" icon to the side) your placeholder.

Step 10: Repeat for the remaining photos.

I reserved a slot for title and journaling. I left it at about 50% transparency 'cause I liked the effect.

There. You're all done! If you want, add some embellishments, and maybe shadows on all the photo layers. Or, leave it as is: looks great either way. And once you get a few under your belt, you can have 'em done in 15-20 minutes. Huge time saver!

Advanced technique: Merge two photo placeholders into 1.

Let's say you really like this template, but one of your photos cannot be cropped into a square. You need a slot that is either 2x as long or 2x as high as the placeholder squares on the template.

Never fear: Just merge two placeholders into one!

Just one screenshot, but I think you'll get the picture.

Steps

1. IMPORTANT: Change the transparency of both layers that you wish to merge back to 100%!

If you don't do this, the transparency gets saved into the alpha channel and our 'magic trick' of using the "Alpha to Selection" command won't work.

2. If the 2 layers you wish to merge are not directly above / below each other in the layers palate, drag them into place such that they are.

3. On the layers template, click the first layer that you want to merge.

4. Right click the layer in the layer palate and chose "Merge Down" from the menu.

At this point, both of your placeholders have become the same layer.

Go ahead and change their transparency back to 50%.

5. Crop and re-size your photo as necessary, paste as a new layer, and drag under the newly merged placeholder.

6. Right-click the placeholder layer in the layer palate and choose "Alpha to Selection."

At this point, you may notice a problem with our scheme: There's a "bar" in between our two original placeholders. If you simply invert the selection and delete on the photo layer, that bar will disappear too, which you probably don't want.

To fix this, chose the Selection Rectangle (shortcut: Shift-R) from the tools palate.

In the tool options, next to the label "Mode," there is a little icon of two red squares overlapping one another. This tells the selection tool to Add To the current selection instead of replacing it. (You can get the same effect by holding down the Shift key while drawing your rectangle.)

With that option selected, draw a rectangle around the missing portion of your selection. You can be sloppy with the height (i.e. it can overlap the existing selection), but the width must line up exactly.

7. Now, invert the selection (Cntrl-I), select the photo layer, and delete. And you've got a double tall (or wide) photo as needed!

OK, now back to your regularly scheduled scrapping!

Scraping Pet Peeves

2011-08-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

I'm out of photos to scrap, no ideas are flowing for new paper kits, and I'm not in the mood for writing tutorials. So what's left to do? Complain, of course!

"Complaining" may not be precisely the right term: I'm actually going to just rant about a set of pet peeves on what passes for "cool" in scrapbooking just now. Because, of course, I am the expert!

I've been at least dabbling in scrapbooking since the late 90's. I've seen the fashions evolve from photos simply matted on bright solids slapped on a white page with a cute border made from Mrs. Grossman stickers to the current trends of distressed kraft paper with layers of ripped whatever, yards of string or lace, paint spatters, chipboard letters, hand-stitching, badges, bling, "found" embellishments, and, oh yeah, I almost forgot, a little photo shoved up in the corner where it won't be in the way.

And for the most part, I've followed along faithfully. Oh, I've never been an early adopter - gone hog-wild with the latest and greatest punches, papers, and glues, or anything. I prided myself during my paper years at being pretty moderate, scrapping on a budget of say, $1.50 to $2 a page (exclusive of tools!) Still, there's a pretty pile of the stuff moldering in my garage: stickers, edge rounders, fancy scissors, gel pens, paper by the ream, velum quote booklets, eyelets and the requisite setting tool, even, I blush to admit, a dry-embossing gadget that I used maybe 4 times. Looking back, about the only thing I can really congratulate myself on is that I (nearly) avoided the whole rubber-stamping black hole. Nearly. Really, I never paid more than $1! Sometimes I even used them!

Of course, I had a blast doing it. And those memories are well and truly preserved: I will never regret having a book full of my trip to Europe or Asia or of my niece's first years. But, even without dates on the pages, you can probably peg most of them to a 2-3 year era just based on what I used and how. These pages are less than 10 years old, most of them, and yet in some ways they're just as dated as the clothes we were wearing.

This is not an accidental metaphor, because in truth the scrapbooking styles in vogue at any moment change about as quickly - and for exactly the same reasons - as our clothing: money! I have no idea exactly how big the scrapbooking industry is. I expect it's down some from its heyday, as many of those cute little mom-n-pop shops are gone, but count the aisles devoted to the subject in your average big-box craft store and it's obvious there's more than a little profit to be made. But since no-one, I mean No-One ever uses all the stuff they buy any more than we wear out our clothes, there's got to be a new line out every season, along with new gadgets and alphabets and the "embellishment du jour." Lace! Metal frames! Fabric flowers! Spray Ink! Embossing Powder! Chipboard Curly Braces! Baker's Twine! Buttons! Little flag banners! And who knows what is next!

This sounds like it's a rant against paper scrapping vs. digital, which wasn't precisely what I set out to do. Not that I am anything less than thrilled with the trade-off. Frankly, one of the greatest things about digi-scrapping is that (assuming you're following my lead and Never paying for assets) your pages always cost exactly the same, regardless of how many papers, alphas, and embellishments you use. No more need to skimp in the slightest on those buttons or stickers or eyelets: just copy and paste when you need more! (And similarly, no need to "layer up" and shove a bunch of pointless stuff on the page just 'cause you paid for it and darn it, it's got to be used.)

Still, digi-scrapping does not free you from the fashion train in any way. On the contrary, since it no longer costs me $, my digital pages are far more fashion-forward than my paper ones ever were. But, reining myself back in once more, what I set out to do was rant against some of the truly Vapid trends in the craft. Trends like

* Pages cluttered with countless little stamps and labels with poignant phrases like "Memories," "Remember," "Always Remember," "Family," "Love," "Shine," "One of a Kind," and a dozen other variations of the same empty words. Show some creativity, folks! I know, I know: coming up with the title is the hard part of scrapping. Do it anyway. No matter how sentimental you feel right now, you - and if not you, your teenaged son - are going to cringe going through a book in a decade where every page has those same, trite sayings scattered about.

I am not perfect on this subject myself. So help me, I have a page titled "Smile!" from just a couple months ago. But my rule of thumb is: if the title looks like you could have bought it pre-made from a store, Don't Use It!
This goes double for the non-title embellishments on a page. IMHO, they're overrated. Why does your journal block need to be stamped "Memories?" (So they can sell you the stamp, silly!) Obviously you're scrapping this stuff because you want to remember it. Don't bang your viewers over the head with it Every Single Page. Let them speak for themselves!
There's a time and place for an apropos quote, although I use them far more frequently when making pages for my niece about whom I know comparatively little. On my own pages, there's simply no room - or need to make it.

* UGLY color combinations and treatments: plain kraft / cardboard, ripped, torn, folded, mutilated, and spindled paper, ink spatters... you know what I'm talking about.

Again, I'm not entirely innocent of this. I've made a few pages I'm not proud of. And on the flip side, sometimes a ripped *edge* is exactly the look you're after and does not detract. But a lot of times the work just ends up looking messy and poorly executed, rather than fun and informal. The later is what you're after: use the grunge Sparingly.

* Pages that scream "It is 2011 and I have rushed out and bought what is cool in the magazines Right Now."
I'm even less innocent of this: One of my pages has little flags on it! Not to mention stitching, funny little scraps of paper, exposed staples, and the odd bit of ric-rac.

Of course, I also wear capri-length pants and cross-over T's - reasonably current fashions that (I sincerely Hope) won't look too ridiculous in 10 years' time. In other words, I try to stick to the middle of the road, looking to identify classics in the making, solid, utilitarian pieces and techniques that will always look fine, if a little dated, regardless of the exact colors or background patterns.
My own style over the last couple of years has strayed from Scrap Simple to Becky Fleck (the latter being a considerably more ornamental, multi-layered, much embellished designer than the former), and will undoubtedly stray back again. I know that pages on the Scrap Simple model will age better than the PageMaps.com style. I don't think I'll hate the complicated ones, though - if for no other reason than that I've consciously avoided the excesses. If I don't think it looks good, I don't use it.

* Any and all pages that relegate the photos themselves to an afterthought.

This is a huge pet peeve right now, probably because it is also a huge trend. 12x12 pages, with a cluster of fancy-shmancy embellishments surrounding a 2x3 photo up in the right corner. Maybe a title. No journaling. I admit a fair bit of my ire is because I am still just a tightwad at heart: even $1.50 for a page without several photos on it seems crazy. But really, it seems like just calling it in - especially when done digitally, using someone *else's* page map or even layered template.

Scanning through my scrapbooks, the mean number of photos per 12x12 page is 3, although the average is higher since some of them have as many as 7 or 8. There are a few pages with single photos, even excluding title pages, but in every case That photo is at least 4x6, usually 5x7 or larger. And it's typically a very good, very special photo - not just a random snapshot from the dinner table - and almost always accompanied by a good amount of text. If I have random snapshots in ones or twos I really want to scrap, I wait until there are several and I can make a significant grouping of them.

But seriously, this craft is About the photos, and just as importantly, the memories (not just the word, the actual written memories) that go with them. Yes, I love the design aspect of it too, but seriously, if you're going to end up with fewer square inches devoted to the photo than if you printed it at 4x6 and popped it in a $1 album, and then topped it off by labeling it "Memories..." why are you even bothering?!

Corollary: Too many photos can be a problem too, and I've actually lowered the average in my daughter's first-year scrapbook. Yes, I am taking fewer photos, but I am also editing more ruthlessly, not to mention learning (and accepting) that not every occasion needs to be scrapped. Don't scrap photos that you don't love just to fill out a page. I mean, don't edit so ruthlessly that Aunt Edna never makes it in, but don't feel like you've got to use that semi-blurred half-profile of your kid with a goofy look on her face just because it's the "only one I have from that event of her!" Skip it. She'll thank you in the end, and she'll still know that you took her to the fair, the berry farm, the zoo, Uncle Michael's birthday party, whatever, because she knows you're the kind of Mom who does that sort of thing, even if you didn't force everyone to stop against a convenient bit of scenery and flash cheesy grins at the camera.

OK, so now that I've offended just about everyone who's ever scrapped, I will never need to write another blog post. ;) That's fine, 'cause I don't really have the time anyway. I am too busy scrappin', gripping, and occasionally setting down the camera, stepping away from the computer, and participating in Life.

I need to do that more than I do, because insofar as know my kids will enjoy the legacy of pretty, happy scrapbooks, they won't mean much if they don't also know Instinctively that they're loved, valued, and cared for, and that I spent most of your time on the right side of the camera lens, actually participating in their lives and the lives of the whole family, not just mooning about the light being wrong and cluttered backgrounds and messy faces (let alone mindlessly purchasing and using the latest and greatest scrap styles!)

Digi-Scrap For Free with my new kit

2011-05-29T15:21:00.001-07:00

My second digi-scrap kit is ready for download.

"Nora's Outfit" comes with 6 papers, 3 ribbons, a curly-brace, and a journal block. Small, but sweet - and free!

You can download it here

Digi-Scrapping for Free: Recoloring Elements

2011-05-10T22:37:00.001-07:00

Here's another one of my favorite things about digi-scrap vs. paper-scrap: never again will you find yourself in with the dilemma of having Just the right paper or element but in the Completely wrong color! Why? Because - within reason - you can Change the color of most anything to match the colors in your photos, your layout, or whatever else you choose!

I will show you three techniques for re-coloring elements, beginning with the simplest case and moving on from there.

As a review, you'll need Gimp installed and running, and if you're a newbie to digital editors, you should go through my earlier tutorials first as I assume familiarity with several tools.

I am recoloring elements from the Oopsie Daisy collection downloaded from digiscrapobsession.com (for free, of course!)

We'll be using the following tools and techniques:

1) The Colorize command

2) The Scissors Select tool

3) The Circle Select tool

4) The Select-By-Color tool

Let's talk about the limitations of the techniques I'll be covering first, though:

* The easiest elements to recolor are monochromatic to begin with - that is, they consist of black, white, and various shades of a single color.

* You cannot typically change a bright white embellishment to deep purple. Nor can you change a black embellishment to light pink. For the most part, the original "lightness" or "darkness" of your embellishment can be tweaked only a little before the results start to look highly unnatural. Also, the Colorize tool we'll be using simply isn't designed to work on pictures that are mostly all white or all black.

* Complicated elements containing many colors, very irregular shapes, etc. are very difficult to recolor successfully- unless you can be content with a monochromatic result!

That said, we still have a lot of latitude available to us. Let's take a look at a simple example.

Example One: Recoloring an entire embellishment

1) Open the bow element that you'd like to recolor

2) We need to find the color we'd like to change it to. My general technique is to use the color dropper tool to select a color from my page layout - probably one of the major colors from the background paper. (To get to the color dropper tool, click on the Foreground Color in the tools palate which brings up a pop-up dialog. The color dropper is the icon next to the HTML notation box about half-way down on the right.)

Once you have the color you want selected in the Change Foreground Color dialog, the important step is to memorize (or copy down) the numbers that appear in the "H" and "S" boxes (for "Hue" and "Saturation.") In this case, 336 and 51

3) Now select Color->Colorize from the menu. Your element immediately turns a bright shade of aqua and a dialog appears with three sliders, one each for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.

Input the numbers you copied from the Color dialog into the first two slider boxes.

You'll see your embellishment change color in sync.

The "Lightness" value is one you'll just have to play with by eye. It entirely depends on the original color of your embellishment whether you'll just leave the value default, or adjust it upwards or downwards by 10 to 30 points. In my case, I adjusted the lightness downwards by 20 points.

That's all there is to it! Your green bow is now deep purple!

Let's move on to a more complicated scenario

Example Two: Recoloring a portion of an embellishment

1. If you're following along with the Oopsie Daisy collection, open the silver brad with the purple center. We're going to change it from purple to moss green.

2. Use the color dialog and color dropper tool to find a nice shade of green as in Step 2 above and note the H and S numbers.

3. As in step 3 above, use the Colorize command to change everything to green.

Wait... that doesn't really look right! We'd much rather retain the nice silver setting for our embellishment, and change just the center to green.

4. Use the Circle Select tool on the tools palate to select Only the center of the brad.

Tips: Checkmark the "Expand from Center" option, and also checkmark the Fixed:aspect ratio option. Enter 1:1 (for a perfect circle). You may also wish to check the "feather edges" option, which gives your final selection a soft edge. A value of around 10 for feathering should be sufficient.

5. Now, go back and do step 3 again.

This time only the center of the embellishment changes color.

From here the tutorial is really just exploring different means of selecting the precise portions of the embellishment you want to change.

Example Three: Using the Scissor Select tool to eliminate portions of the embellishment from recoloring

1. Open the light blue button with white thread in the center.

Although as I mentioned above elements that are mostly white do not recolor very well, if you simply use the Colorize dialog on this element, the white thread will take on a purplish cast which is not entirely desirable.

2. Use the Scissor Select tool to select only the thread portion

"Scissor Select" is a really powerful tool that automatically detects edges in your image and snaps its selection to those edges. It definitely takes some practice to use well!

I refer you to this tutorial for in-depth information on how to use the thing.

The basic technique, however, isn't too complicated. Left-click on the image where you want to start "clipping" along the edge of the white thread. Then click several more times around the perimeter of the thread. Think of it like a dot-to-dot: you're placing the "dots" around the edge of the thread, and the scissor select tool is connecting them - it's just being smart enough to follow the contour of thread when it does. Where practice is required is getting the interval between your dots right - close enough that the tool can "guess" what you're trying to select accurately, but far enough apart that you yourself don't do 98% of the work.

When you've completed your perimeter, join the first dot to the last dot by clicking that last dot and either click inside the curve, or hit enter to convert your clipping to a standard selection.

3. Once you've successfully selected the thread, choose Select->Invert or Cntrl-I to invert the selection (because we want to change the color of the button, not the thread!) If you did not checkmark the "Feather Edges" option when using the Scissor Select tool, you may also want to choose Select->Feather and chose a relatively small value like 3 to 6. This will make the boundary between the recolored and original pixels soft and add to the realism.

Now, use the Colorize command as in Step 3 in the first example.

If you successfully selected the thread, you should get a nice purple button with bright white thread in the center.

There are several other methods available for selection portions of embellishments for recoloring. I occasionally use the Select By Color tool, for instance, when the portion of the element that I do Not wish to change is too complicated to select via the Scissor Select tool. However, I am typically Least successful when I use this technique. Regardless of tweaking, I still always end up selecting too much or too little, and the end result looks blocky and unnatural.

I've had better success with this tool when recoloring background papers that are already a bit fuzzy and imprecise to begin with.

Digi-Scrapping for Free: Four Easy Frames

2011-04-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all, here is another entry in my "How To Digi-Scrap For Free" series.

I don't know about you, but back in the "bad old days" when I was scrapping with paper and scissors, adding mattes to my photos was my least favorite part of the craft. It was tedious, tricky, and consumed large amounts of paper. You'll be happy to know that it can be very simple in Gimp, and doesn't consume any more paper than the rest of the hobby! :)

In this tutorial we will demonstrate four different options for framing or matting your photos.

Quick Review: In Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series we covered the basics of Picasa, photo organization, workflow, and where to score free digi-scrap supplies. In Part 4 we (finally) created a very basic scrapbook page using Gimp. In Part 5 we looked at several options for more interesting titles in Gimp.

For this tutorial you will need (at minimum)

* Gimp, downloaded and installed

* A piece of digital patterned paper / cardstock from a downloaded kit (I used one from the "Naturally Free" kit at LivEDesigns)

* A photograph

Getting Started

Just as when designing page titles, I usually find it easiest to border, matte, or frame my photos before placing them on my layout. This tutorial will assume you're doing the same.

Tip: Always crop, color correct, and (most importantly) Resize your photo to the size you'll be using on your layout before adding frames or mattes. Otherwise you will end up with inconsistently sized frames / borders!

Method 1: Adding a Solid Border

This is the simplest possible strategy for bordering your photos, but it provides a very elegant, clean look and I use it all the time.

1. Open your photo and resize it to 4x6 inches (1200x1800 pixels)

2. Choose Select->All from the menu or type Cntrl-a

3. Choose Select->Border

4. In the pop-up, enter a value of 25

The selection will be replaced with a border 25 pixels *on each side* of the original selection. In this case, 1/2 that amount is outside the "canvas" so our border will be just 25 px. (We'll come back to that little fact later.)

5. Using the Bucket Fill tool, fill the selected pixels with white paint.

Simple as that: you have a photo with a nice white border.

Choose Select->All or Cntrl-A, Copy, and paste it into your layout. All done!

Method 2: Adding an "ink pen" border inside your photo

1. As in Method 1, open your photo and resize to 4x6 inches.

2. Also as before, select all (Cntrl-a).

3. From the Select menu, choose "Shrink." In the pop-up, enter a value between 50 and 100 - I chose 100.

You will now have a selection rectangle 100 pixels on each side smaller than your photo.

4. Now, choose Select->Border. This time, enter a smaller value such as 15.

As mentioned in step 4 above, the Border command creates a border the chosen number of pixels to each side of the selection rectangle. In this instance the selection is well inside of the photo "canvas," and so a 15 pixel border will actually be 30 px - wider than the 25 px one we used on the last example.

5. From the Layers palate, create a new layer. Accept the default values.

6. Making sure that the new layer is active, use the Bucket Fill tool to fill the selection with white paint. You now have a nice white outline inside your photo.

7. If desired, choose a layer blend Mode such as "Grain Merge" to allow a portion of the background photo to show through the outline. You can experiment with these modes ss well as the opacity slider to get an effect you like.

Method 3: Matting a photo on patterned paper

1. As in the previous two methods, first crop, color correct, and resize your photo to 4x6 inches.

2. Now, we want to make a 50 px border around our photo.

Under the "Image" menu, choose "Canvas Size."

3. In the pop-up window, make the following changes;

a. to the right of the height and width boxes is a little icon that looks like three links of chain, joined together. Click it to "break" the links apart.

(When joined, this option maintains the same aspect ratio between the current and new height and the width of the canvas. For example, we have a 1200x1800 pixel photo, which is a 2x3 ratio. If I set the new width to 1300, the new height will be autofilled as 1.5 * 1300, which is 1950. However, we want an exactly 50 px border all the way around our photo, so we need to break the link.)

b. Enter 1300 and 1900 respectively.

c. Click the "center" button. The "X" and "Y" offset fields will be auto-filled with 50.

d. Click "OK."

* Tip: Type "Cntrl-e" to automatically resize your Gimp window to show your new canvas.

4. Now you should see your photo centered with 50 px of transparent space on each edge.

Create a new layer in the Layers palate. Accept all defaults.

5. In the Layers palate, drag and drop the new layer underneath the photo layer.

6. Open a piece of patterned paper to use as a matte. On this paper, use the Rectangle Select tool to select a rectangle (at least) 1300x1900 pixels. It doesn't have to be exact, just not smaller.

Chose "Edit->Copy" or Cntrl-c to copy the rectangle.

7. Back in your photo window, make sure the new layer is active.

Choose Edit->Paste or Cntrl-v to paste the patterned paper under your photo.

8. A temporary layer will appear in the layers palate labeled "Floating Selection (Pasted Layer)." Right-click and choose "Anchor Layer." The temporary layer will disappear and the patterned paper will be "pasted" to the new layer beneath the photo.

9. Now, to finish the illusion, click your photo layer to make it active and chose Filters->Light and Shadow->Drop Shadow. Accept the defaults from the pop-up.

10. If desired, click the Shadow layer to make it active and change the Mode to "Grain Merge." This allows the color behind the shadow to show through for a subtly more realistic appearance.

Method 4: Create a chipboard frame on top of your photo

1. This is a cross between method one (simple outline) and method 3 (photo matte).

To get started, follow steps 1-4 from the Simple Outline example to create a 25 px border around the edge of your photo.

Then follow steps 2-4 from the photo matte example to increase the canvas size by 100 px height and width. However, leave the new layer that you create *on top* of your photo.

So when you're done, you will have your photo centered on a canvas with 50 extra px of space on each side, and a border around (and beyond) its edge.

2. Switch to your patterned paper and copy a piece out of it of approximately the same height and width of your photo. (as in step 6 of the photo matte example).

3. Back on your photo, make sure the new layer you created is active. From the Edit menu, chose "Paste Into." The patterned paper will fill your border selection.

4. As before, right click the temporary "Floating Selection" layer in the layer palate and chose "Anchor Layer."

5. Choose Select->None (Cntrl-Shift-A).

6. From the Filters menu, chose Decor->Add Bevel.

Make sure that "work on copy" is Not checked. Chose a bevel depth of 6 to 10.

(If nothing appears to change, go back and make sure nothing is selected.)

7. Add a drop shadow to the frame layer with Filters->Light and Shadow->Drop Shadow.

This is one time you may want to leave the "allow resizing" checkbox selected. Depending on how much space you have left to the bottom and right of your frame, the shadow may be truncated otherwise.

8. Choose Edit->Copy Visible or Cntrl-Shift-C to copy all layers of your finished image. Then paste as a new layer on your scrapbook page.

That's it in a nutshell: four simple ways to get nice, elegant frames, borders, or mattes for your photos. Hope it was helpful!

Digi-Scrapping for Free: Creating Titles in Gimp

2011-04-22T17:37:00.001-07:00

Hello all, we're back for another tutorial in the "How to Digi-Scrap for Free" series.

In the previous installment, we created our very first scrapbook page. It wasn't bad, but the title was - well - boring. Just black text with a little drop shadow. Not very impressive.

In this tutorial we will cover three options for making a more interesting title.

For all three methods I tend to open a brand new image file of the approximate dimensions I need for my title and work there rather than add a dozen new layers to my page layout. It's just easier to see and deal with. I then copy all layers of the finished title and paste as a single layer into the scrapbook page.

* A shortcut for finding the approximate size of your title is to use the rectangle select tool on your scrapbook page to draw a box around the location you'll be placing the title. The dimensions of your box will appear in the lower left of your page window. Add a little to these numbers and open a new document of that size. We will refer to this document as your "Title Workspace"

The first method I will cover is using a pre-made alpha downloaded from a free scrapbooking site.

This method is technically the easiest in that it requires only the copy and paste operations, but also usually the most time consuming and tedious, and the least flexible. Therefore I save it for occasions when I Really like the downloaded alpha and cannot easily duplicate its font and treatment.

In my example, I used the "Milk and Cookies" font from DreamsFulfilled.

Makers of alphas may save each individual character in their alphabet as a separate file, or they may combine them into a single, large image typically in PNG format.

In the later case, there is much less opening and closing of files to worry about, but you will have to carefully draw a selection rectangle around each character before copying it.

In both cases, the basic technique is to individually copy each character in your title and paste it into your layout.

The Milk and Cookies alpha is one the former type: each character is its own file.

Instructions

1. Open the first character you need.

2. In the character's window, type "Cntrl-c" or select Edit->Copy

3. In your title workspace, select Edit->Paste as->New Layer

4. Use the Move tool (select by typing "m") to drag the character near the top left of your workspace. Leave a few pixels at the top in case other characters are taller.

5. To simplify placement of the rest of the characters, create a new guide lined up with the bottom of the first character. Future characters can usually "snap to" this guide.

* Tip: Create a new guide at an arbitrary location by clicking anywhere in the "ruler" bar (below the file, edit, and etc. menus) of your title workspace. Hold down the mouse button while dragging down. A new guide appears and follows your pointer. You can move this guide in the future by clicking on it when it turns red.

6. Repeat steps 1-4 for each additional character, using the guide from step 5 to line them up evenly on the bottom. Use your eye to line them up horizontally.

7. When all letters have been placed, go to Edit->Copy Visible, or type "Cntrl-Shift-C." This copies All layers of your title into the buffer. If you forget and simply type "Cntrl-c," you'll end up with only the active layer - i.e. one character.

8. In your scrapbook page window, select Edit->Paste as->New Layer. Use the Move tool to position the title as desired.

If necessary, use Layer->Scale Layer or the Resize tool to change the size of your title.
Don't forget to add a drop shadow!

A few additional tips

* As a rule, alpha creators seem to make their letters about 1 inch - that is, 300 px - high. That may be much larger than you need. Take my advice, however, and build the title using the full resolution letters and resize only when you're ready to place the finished title.

* It is pretty common to underestimate the required size of your "workspace," and then find when you are placing the last 2-3 characters that you need more space.

Use Image ->Canvas Size to give yourself more space.

Do not worry about making your canvas exactly the same size as your title. The empty space will not cause you any serious problems on your scrapbook layout. You may also use Layer->Autocrop to clip out the extra space when you're finished.

The next methods I will cover are quite similar in that they make use of the Alpha to Selection, Selection Shrink or Grow, and the Add Bevel filter.

First let's make, Raised letters from patterned paper

Let me start by stating that there are at least two relatively simple methods of doing this, and which one I use varies by what seems easiest at the time. I may explain the second in another tutorial. We're going to use the "paste into" method.

1. Open a new file of the approximate height and width of your title.

* Tip: Sometimes I use the text tool to place a simple title on my scrapbook page. After I get the font size right, I copy and paste that layer only as a new file using Cntrl-Shift-V

2. Use the Text tool to type your title in the Title Workspace (unless you used the tip above!) Choose and appropriate color for the outline of your finished title. Make it the size you want to use in your page, or *larger* - remember, it's easy to scale down; hard to scale up!

3. Here's where the magic happens.

In the Layers palate, right click on the layer containing your title. Select "Alpha to Selection" Voila! The marching ants appear around our title.

This wonderful little command has the effect of selecting everything on the layer that is not transparent - in our case, the text itself.

Amazing! Stop for a moment and contemplate all the wonderful things you can do with this power!

Or... just go on to the next step! :)

4. From the Select menu, choose Select->Shrink.

In the pop-up window, choose a value somewhere between 2 and 6 depending on the relative thickness of your font. The "marching ants" will fall back to enclose an area that much smaller than your title.

5. Now, if you haven't already, open a piece of patterned background paper. (I used one from the "Spontaneous Delight" collection from Shabby Princess. If you haven't downloaded all their free stuff, take a break for a few moments (err, hours!) and do so.

Use the rectangle select tool to select a rectangle roughly the same dimensions as your title - again, err on the size of "too big" rather than too small.

Type Cntrl-c or Edit->Copy to copy that segment of paper.

6. Back in your Title Working Space, choose Edit->Paste Into.

The paper you copied appears inside the marching ants.

7. Now - and this is important - go over to the Layers palate. You will notice there is a new layer at the top called "Floating Selection." Right-click on that layer and choose "Anchor Layer" from the pop-up menu. This will "collapse" the new funky floating layer into your exiting layer.

If you forget and choose Select->None or Cntrl-Shift-A, weird things happen - specifically, the entire block of patterned paper you copied will appear and replace your selection, obscuring your text. If that happens, don't panic: just hit Undo and follow the procedure above to defloat the layer.

8. At this point, we're looking pretty good: we have an outline around a nice title made from patterned paper. The final step is to give the whole thing some height.

Important: Chose Select->None or Cntrl-Shift-A to deselect your text, or the Bevel tool won't work.

From the Filters menu, choose Filters->Decor->Add Bevel.

In the pop-up, Uncheck the box labeled "Work on copy" (otherwise we'll end up with a brand new image which we don't need.)

Choose a height of anywhere between 4 and 8.

Your title should now have a nice raised look - as if it were made from slightly puffy, shiny stickers.

(If nothing appeared to happen, go back and make sure nothing is selected in your image - i.e. no "marching ants.")

Pretty cool, huh?

The last technique I will cover is Chipboard Letters.

It's very similar to the one we just did, but instead of shrinking our selection we'll be growing it, and we'll add an extra layer which we'll fill with a pattern before beveling.

Here we go

1. As in previous examples, open a new file the approximate dimensions of your finished title.

Chose your desired font and size and type your title in the window using the Text tool.

2. As before, right-click on your layer in the layer palate and choose "Alpha to Selection"

3. This time, we're going to Grow the selection. Chose Select->Grow and enter a value between 4 and 10 depending on how much "chipboard" you want to have visible around the edges.

4. Now, create a new layer. If you wish you can name it "chipboard," or leave it as default. The dimensions and other options should be left default.

5. In the Layers palate, drag your new layer Underneath your text layer.

6. On the Tools palate, select the Bucket Fill tool. Select "Pattern Fill" as the fill type and choose the "burlwood" pattern.

* Tip: I settled on the built-in Burlwood pattern as the most chipboard-like after quite a lot of experimentation. Most of the built in patterns are not very useful for scrapbooking: they're too tiny for 300dpi images. Burlwood works in this context-but not by actually Looking like burlwood! I may do another tutorial on interesting ways to use Pattern Fill at some point.

7. If you remembered to move your new layer underneath the text layer, then you should now see your text outlined with the burlwood pattern. Otherwise you'll see nothing but burlwood. Don't panic: just drag the new layer underneath and order shall be restored.

Now, choose Select->None or Cntrl-Shift-A to deselect everything.

8. Add a bevel as in the last example using Filters->Decor-Add Bevel.

And, we're done. Not a bad chipboard approximation at all in my book.

A few more tips and hints before I wrap this up

* Instead of using the built-in burlwood pattern and the Bucket-Fill tool, you could instead find a nice kraft paper or chipboard-patterned paper. Then use the technique from the second example to copy a piece of that pattern and paste-into the selection. Arrange and layers and bevel the finished product as shown.

Remember to use Select->Copy Visible or Cntrl-Shift-C to copy both layers of your title to the scrapbook page.

* The other method for "cutting out" a title in patterned paper (to which I alluded before the second example) is as follows:

Open your patterned paper. Use the Text Tool to type your title in the desired size and font anywhere on the paper page. Then use the Alpha to Selection command in the layer pop-up menu to select only the text.

Here's the trick: Now select the Paper layer in the layer palate and chose Edit->Copy or Cntrl-c to copy *just the patterned paper.*

Paste it on your scrapbook page as a new layer if you don't want to outline it, or paste it as a new image (Cntrl-Shift-v) if you want to make additional changes.

You can see how this method might be more convenient at times.

* Sometimes all you need to make your text stand out is a simple outline. I routinely use the Alpha To Selection command with Select->Shrink or Select->Grow depending on the relative width of my font to get an outline. The advantage of the former is that you can do everything on the same layer. The advantage of the latter is that sometimes your fancy-shmanzy font is just too skinny!

My Very First Page Kit

2011-04-13T16:36:00.001-07:00

Sorry, no new tutorials today: it'll be a while before I am (a) caught up on my own scrapbooking, which I dare not let get too far behind, and (b) have some mental energy left over from kids, cleaning, and life in general.

Instead, I have for you a page kit - my very first - for your scrapbooking pleasure.

It's not a huge one - plenty of papers, but only a small hand-full of elements. Honestly, I don't have the skills for complicated element creation from scratch and I want to make sure everything I use as a building block is licensed properly. So for now we're looking at squares, stars, flowers, and a few scallops!

In any case, please enjoy Blue Skies for free.

Download

Papers

Elements

Here's a sample page, too. Grace's outfit may give you a clue as to the inspiration of this kit! :)

Digi-Scrap for Free: Part 4 - Creating Your First Page

2011-01-29T20:18:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial we will actually get out our scissors and glue (figuratively speaking of course) and build an entire scrapbook page in Gimp.

Be sure you've read, or at least scanned, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series before proceeding.

Also be sure you have downloaded, unzipped, and installed

Software

1. Gimp

2. Picasa

Supplies

1. The "Just Jake" Paper and Elements from DreamsFulfilled

2. One landscape / horizontally oriented photo to scrap

A word of warning: Gimp is not for the faint of heart. If you do not have any experience with a product like Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or Photo Elements, I strongly suggest you take some time to play around with the program.

I also recommend taking a cruise through the tutorials at gimp.org/tutorials, especially the "GimpLite Quickies" to help acquaint yourself with the basic tools.

I will do my best to be clear here, but I won't be going into Tons of detail on basic tasks.

What we'll be doing

1. Selecting background paper for our page

2. Cutting and pasting a strip from a second piece of paper

3. Resizing and sharpening our photo

4. Pasting our photo onto our page

5. Adding a corner embellishment

6. Adding a title

7. Adding journaling

8. Adding a few more embellishments

9. Adding shadows to all elements

10. Saving in multiple formats

When we're done we will have a page that looks basically like this:

Along the way we'll learn a little bit about the rectangle select tool, the move tool, guides, layers, the unsharp mask, and shadows.

1. Select and Open the Background Paper

Select "Open" from the File menu, or hit "Cntrl-O"

Take a moment here to familiarize yourself with Gimp's "Open" dialog.

The Preview pane on the right is your best friend! Do note, however, that thumbnails are not generated automatically for images > 4 megs. So get used to clicking in the preview window to force the update!

Navigate to the location where you unzipped the "Just Jake" collection and open the brown paper.

1a. Save Your Page!

First Things First. Remember the golden rule of image editing, "Never Overwrite the Original!" Use File-Save or Shift-Cntrl-S to open the save dialog.

I am assuming you already have a folder set up to store your scrapbook pages. If you don't, create one now! Mine is under my "My Pictures" folder and called (very creatively) "Scrapbooks." I also have subfolders for each individual book I am working on.

As far as page names go, I highly recommend a date based scheme in the format yyyy_mm_dd.

For example, this page will be named 2011_01_23.xcf

If it was a two page spread or there were multiple pages for the same day, I would add an "a," "b," etc.

This naming scheme is the best way to guarantee your pages can be easily sorted in chronological order .

A word on file format: Gimp's native file type is "XCF," and No, I do not know what it stands for. :) You'll want to save all your working files in this format. When you do not type any extension on your file name it will be saved as XCF by default, or you can selected it from the file type drop down, or simply type it.

1b. Add guides to your page.

Guides are temporary, non-printing lines that provide both a visual reference on your page, and also act as "snap to" points. We'll learn more about that when we start playing with the Move tool, but basically anything you're drawing or moving on the page is "magnetically attracted" to a snap point. This is invaluable when lining up multiple photos and elements. We're not doing anything very complicated on this page, but the guides are good for reference.

Select Image -> Guide -> New Guide (by percent)

A straightforward dialog appears. Create one horizontal and one vertical guide at 50% to bisect your page. They show as dotted blue lines. You can move them around with the "move" tool, too.

2. Cut and paste a strip of a second paper

Open the red paper from the Just Jake collection.

Now, select the "rectangle" tool from the top left tool box (usually floating on the left of your screen).

Use it to draw a random rectangle anywhere on the red paper.

Then, in the tool dialog box, enter the following values:

Position: 0, 0

Size: 3600, 1500

This moves the rectangle to the upper right of the page and resizes it to 12 by 5 inches.

Now, copy the selected portion of the red paper by choosing Edit -> Copy, or hitting Cntrl-C

2a. Paste your strip of paper onto your scrapbook page as a new layer

Select Edit -> Paste -> Paste As New Layer

A layer is pretty much what it sounds like. Items on different layers may be moved around independently of one another, just as if they were physical pieces of paper, stickers, etc. on a scrapbook page.
I almost never paste a new item as anything other than a new layer: memorize where this command is and use it often!

2b. Drag the red strip about 1/3 down on your page.

The "Move" tool looks like a plus sign with arrows on all four lines. Select it from the toolbox, or type "Shift-M" to select it. Then simply drag the red strip to the desired location.

When you're done, it should look something like this.

3. Resize and Sharpen the Photo

Now, open the photo you want to scrapbook in Gimp. (Remember you can use Picasa to quickly locate it, and once selected hit "Cntrl-Enter" to open a File Explorer window to its location.)

If you don't see the changes you made inside Picasa, remember you need to save it there!

Before doing anything else, save a copy of your photo - remember, "Never Overwrite the Original!" I recommend something like "originalfilename_edit.jpg" (When saving as JPG, always make sure the quality setting is at 100%)

3a. Resize to 6 x 4 inches

Images shot at full resolution on your camera (you *are* shooting at full quality and resolution, right?!) will be Much larger than 6x4 inches on your page. We need to scale it down so it'll fit properly.

Select Image -> Scale

In the dialog, choose "Inches" from the drop down, then type in 6 for the width. It will auto-fill the 4 for you.

Ensure that the X and Y resolution are set at 300.

3b. Sharpen your photo

Even the best photos will usually benefit from a little sharpening.

Select Filters -> Enhance -> Unsharp Mask

Don't be fooled by the "Sharp" option in this menu; the irrationally named "Unsharp Mask" is the tool best suited to our job.

Fill out the above values in the dialog and apply them.

Note: Order actually matters a bit here. The effect of the same settings for the unsharp mask will be greater After you've scaled down your image because it's operating on fewer pixels. The difference won't be huge, but I habitually sharpen after resizing.

4. Paste the photo as a new layer

Follow the same procedure as in Step 2 to copy the photo (you do Not need to draw a rectangle around it first: simply choose Edit -> Copy), paste as a new layer, and move into place.

Use the snapshot of the finished page at the top of the tutorial for reference.

5. Add an Embellishment on the photo corner

Again, we're following basically the same procedure as Step 2.

Open the blue corner decoration from the Just Jake collection. Copy it, then paste as a new layer. Use the Move tool to drag it into place.

You have enough layers in your page now that this is a good time to go over how to use the "Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo" toolbar.

This bar, on the right hand of your screen by default, looks like this:

You can see a tiny little thumbnail of the contents of each layer. Clicking on the layer makes it Active so that whatever tool you're using applies to it rather than some other portion of the page. Even more usefully at this juncture, you can drag and drop the layers around to change their order. For instance, you may have inadvertently pasted your corner decoration so that it is "under" the red strip or your photo. Simply select its layer in the Layers toolbar and drag it up to the top.

6. Add a Title

Let me preface this section by admitting that if Gimp has a serious weakness it is in its Text tool. It's fairly basic. You can't put multiple fonts in the same text box, type along a curve, or anything like that. (Actually, you can put text on a "path," which is an advanced concept I won't be covering, but it always ends up looking Awful.)

But it does the job, and with some creativity you can make some very nice looking titles. That's not what we're doing here, though: we're going to go with Ultra-Basic and maybe fix it layer. :)

6a. Select the Text tool by clicking on the "A" icon in the tool box, or typing "Shift-T"

In the tool options, select the "Sans Bold" font. Instead of size of 100, make it 300 for the title.

6b. Draw a rectangle with the Text tool on the red strip to the right of the photograph

Once you let go of the mouse button, the text box dialog pops up and you can enter your text.

This screenshot is actually for the next step when you enter journaling, but the concept is the same.

Before, during, or after typing the text you can drag the corner handles around on the page to resize the box or reposition it.

While we're here, take a look at the Layers tool bar again. You will note that your text layer has a large "T" icon instead of a thumbnail. You can come back to your text layers any time and edit the text just like a word processor: just select the Text tool from the tool box, the text layer you want to edit from the Layer tool bar, and then click anywhere on your page to open the text editor pop-up again.

7. Add some journaling

Use the same procedure as in Step 6 to create a new Text layer. Hint: if clicking on your page with the Text tool brings up the editing pop-up for the Title, just go over to the Layers toolbar and select a different layer. Then try drawing your box again: a new layer will be created.

For journaling a font size between 55 on the very low end to 100 on the high is appropriate. I usually aim around 72.

8. Add a few more embellishments

As in Step 4, find an embellishment you like from the Just Jake collection and add it to your page as a new layer. For instance, I added four copies of the blue button to the corners of the red paper.

As an exercise to the student, explore your tool box and find a way to scale the buttons to a smaller size. Also look for the "Duplicate Layer" button on the Layers toolbox as a handy shortcut to putting multiple copies of the same element on your page.

9. Add Shadows to (practically) everything

Shadows are an absolutely critical element that spells the difference between a flat, obviously artificial page and one that looks just like you made it with scissors and paste.

I learned the hard way never to skip them: they make a world of difference when you print your page!

9a. From the Layers toolbar, select the first layer containing an embellishment, photo, or piece of paper that needs a shadow.

9b. Select Filters -> Light and Shadow -> Drop Shadow

The only thing you need to change in this dialog is to uncheck the box that says "Allow Resizing." If you don't when you add shadow to an element that is the same height or width as the page (i.e. the red paper strip) the whole "canvas" will be resized by a few pixels to allow room for the entire shadow. You do not want this.

Shadows are created as new layers, meaning they can be easily removed if you don't want them for some reason after the fact. It also means that if you move the embellishment or photo that is "making" the shadow, the shadow will remain fixed in place. You'll either have to "chain" the layers together (a topic for another lesson), "glue" them together (permanently), or move the shadow separately. All three options are irritating, which is why I try to leave my shadow creation to the very end when everything is on the page exactly where I want it.

9c. Repeat for each embellishment and photo.

In the case of this page you do Not need to add a shadow to the journaling layer, but do add it to the title. The corner embellishment came a shadow built it, and of course the background paper itself doesn't need shadow. Every other layer gets one. (Hint: Cntrl-F re-applies the last used filter. This can save you lots of wading through menus!)

10. Save!

Of course, you should have been saving regularly all along. Gimp crashes every once in a while for no apparent reason, and it's Really irritating to lose an hour of work!

But unless you own a 12x12 photo printer, you also need a publishable, printable copy of your page. This means JPG.

Select File -> Save A Copy to open the "Save" dialog. ("Save A Copy" is better than "Save As" in this context since it does not change the file name of the page that is currently open in Gimp. In other words, you're still working on the XCF version of the page after saving a copy, rather than making changes to a JPG which does not support layers.)

I keep my printable copies in the same folder as my XCFs, but you might chose to put them elsewhere of course. All you need to do is change the XCF file extension to JPG, and ensure that the quality settings are at 100%.

That's it! Your page is now ready for upload to your printer of choice! As mentioned in Part 1, Scrapbooksplease.com is the most economical I've found.

Whew! You made it! Getting used to Gimp is the hardest part, of course. But rest assured: it's not Much harder than Photoshop or Elements, and you're saving somewhere between $100 and $600 in the bargain.

Now add up how many sheets of 12x12 paper you Didn't buy at $0.50 to $2 each , how many sticker packs you Didn't purchase at $4 each, how many $5 rolls of glu-dots you didn't use, how many chipboard alphabet sets you didn't shell out for - and then use only 8 or 10 letters, but somehow still all of the necessary vowels you want for your next title!, and how many spools of ribbon, buttons and brads and eyelets and - oh yeah, that shnazzy Cricket machine plus assorted dies you didn't end up needing - and you may well be saving $5/page. Maybe even more! Besides, you didn't make a mess. When the kids started fussing all you had to do was close the laptop. It's a fantastic deal, if you're willing to put in the time to learn the ropes.

Hope I've made a convert or two.

If there's interest, I may add some additional tutorials in coming weeks: for instance, the title on this page is weak, and we can do much better. Another neat trick is changing the colors on downloaded papers and elements, and even making your own background "cardstock." The possibilities are practically limitless... stay tuned!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Digi-Scrap for Free: Part 3 - Organizing your Supplies

2011-01-28T08:56:00.000-08:00

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

In Part 2, I covered my workflow for importing photos from your camera and doing two review & edit passes in Picasa.

In this, rather shorter, entry I will cover how I use Picasa to (sort of) organize my Digi-Scrap supplies.

Overview

1. Unzip files to a central folder under "My Pictures"

Inside Picasa

2. Force all Scrap supplies to appear together by changing folder dates

3. Add keywords in the folder description for easier searching

4. Use Picasa's search filters to locate files you want, then open then in Gimp

Disclaimer: my methods are kludgy at best. (Kludgy is geek-speak for "inelegant," "inefficient," or just "messy"). Picasa is not really designed to handle these sorts of pictures, so I have to force the square peg into a round hole as it were.
I haven't found a better solution, let alone one that is free and easy, so I live with Picasa and continue to find it "good enough."

Back in Part 1 I mentioned a number of my favorite resources for downloading free, high quality scrapping supplies, and also mentioned a few tips on how to make sure you're getting quality items.
Here's what I do once I've downloaded my stuff:

1. Unzip into a central location

Most versions of Windows have some sort of built-in archive extractor. I use Windows 7, and I don't remember if there either isn't one or I just didn't like it, 'cause I downloaded Pea Zip and use it for all my zipping and unzipping needs.

I created a folder called "ScrapbookLayouts" under "My Pictures." Call yours whatever you like - maybe "ScrapSupplies" would make more sense, for instance.
I unzip everything into sub-folders under this location. I name the sub-folder based on the name of the downloaded file - nothing more complicated than that. (9 times in 10 the publisher put her elements into folders and subfolders inside the archive, so you often end up with deep folder structures, but this isn't that big a deal.)

2. Edit Folder Details in Picasa

Here's where it gets kludgy. Picasa is very strongly date-based. Your folders appear in its system based on the date that folder was created - not the date you downloaded it, unzipped it, or whatever. That means your new supplies could be hiding mixed among your photographs anywhere between 2005 and 2011. Ugh!

I want all my digi-scrap supplies to appear together, and this is my hack:

(a) Find your new supplies in Picasa's file system. If necessary, use the search function (I'll cover it later!) to find your new supplies - just type the name of the folder.

(b) Change the date of the folder to a year Before you have any photos on your computer. For instance, I don't have any pictures older than 2006 on my hard drive, so I change all my scrap supplies folders to 2005.

In the screenshot above, notice were it says "Sep 12, 2005" under the folder name ("ssam_CoffeeBreak"). Just double-click the date to open a pop-up window allowing you to change all of the folder's details.

(c) While editing the date, add some keywords too!
Again referencing the above screenshot, notice where it says "lime chocolate neutral plaid" etc.
I try to put a bunch of useful keywords in the folder description box - colors, shapes, types of elements, etc. - so I can search for one of these terms later and find my supplies.

If you're experienced in Picasa or similar programs you may notice that I am NOT using the built in "tag" function, which would seem to make a lot more sense. Here's my rationale: it takes a lot more time and clicks to add tags to an image or folder then it does to type a bunch of keywords in the folder description, and it is no easier to search by tag than by keyword. So why bother?

That's literally all I do as far as organization! It's quick and dirty, but it's "good enough."

Finally, let's learn how to use those keywords you just created.

3. Finding Files In Picasa and the underlying File System

Searching in Picasa is a simple as putting a keyword of phrase in the "Find" bar at the top right.

In the screenshot above you'll see I've entered the term "pink." Your folders are now filtered to show only the ones where the word "Pink" appears in the name, description, or tags. In this case, "pink" appears in the folder description I entered for this folder.

Once I have found the paper or other image I want to use on my page, all that remains is to find it on the file system so I can open it in Gimp.

(a) select your image, then hit "Control-Enter" to open a new *Windows* file explorer window to the folder that contains it.
(b) In the Windows File Explorer, copy the entire path of your folder (in Windows 7, when you click inside the File Explorer "address bar," the contents collapse into a standard path like "c:\users\my name\my pictures\scrapbooklayouts\prettyPinkPaper")
(c) Inside of Gimp, use Control-O to open a new file, and paste the path you just copied in the pop-up window. Then select the file you want.
(Much more on what to do next in the upcoming entry!)

At this point I need to mention one last limitation of using Picasa to manage your digi-scrap supplies. Picasa only works on JPG, GIF, and BMP files - maybe a couple more as well, but the point is it does NOT display PNGs. Most of your downloaded scrapbooking *embellishments* are going to be PNGs or another fancier file type. So don't worry when all you can find inside Picasa are the background papers. The embellishments are not missing, they simply cannot be previewed.
Thankfully, most publishers also provide a preview / contact sheet in JPG format showing every paper and embellishment on a single page. Those Will appear in Picasa and I use them to jog my memory and to create keywords.

In summation, there is almost certainly a better method out there to organize your digi-scrap supplies. Picasa is good enough for me because it doesn't require me to use yet another program, invest a lot of time and effort into tagging each individual item, or (worst of all) buy something!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

How To Digi-Scrap for Free (or very nearly): Part 2 - Establishing a Digital Workflow

2011-01-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

Establishing a Digital Workflow

In Part 1 of this mini-series, I covered which free software you'd need to get started with digital scrapbooking, and mentioned several of my favorite sites for good quality free digi-scrap supplies and affordable printing.

In this entry, I will cover my digital workflow for working with photos - that is, how I get my pictures from my camera onto my computer and do first pass editing.

My next post will cover my workflow for digital scrapbooking assets (paper, embellishments, etc), and finally I'll walk through creating a simple scrapbook page in Gimp.

We'll cover the following

1. Copying (Importing) photos from your camera onto your PC

2. Filing photos under date based folders for easy recall

3. Performing a first pass in Picasa to "star" good photos and delete un-salvageable ones

4. Performing a second pass in Picasa to fix color, exposure, and red eye on best photos

5. Save edited photos

For this tutorial you will need Picasa installed, as well as your camera with either the cable it came with, or a USB card reader. A card reader is a handy little device with a slot for your camera card. You can get them for anywhere from $8 to $30 from your electronics store or online. You put the card in the reader and plug the reader into the PC and your system treats it as another hard-drive. This is my preferred method.

In many cases, your PC or laptop will also have a built in card reader, which eliminates the need for an extra device.

Workflow Step 1: Copy Photos onto your PC

1. Plug your camera into your computer, or insert your camera memory card into your card reader. In a moment or two, depending on which version of Windows you are running, you will probably get a pop-up message asking you what you'd like to do next. It may offer you the option to view the pictures in Windows Media or Picasa, copy them using some other piece of pre-installed software, or etc.

Don't choose any of these: choose the option to open a folder to view the files. (Near the bottom)

A new window will open up displaying the folders on your camera card.

In my case, there is a root folder called "DCIM," and then there are numbered subfolders inside like "616CANON," "617CANON," etc.

Your camera will almost certainly be slightly different, but the general idea is the same.

2. Open a new file explorer window and create a new folder in the appropriate location on your hard drive to store your photos.

I use a date-based naming scheme for storing my photos, because it is easy, objective, and quick to scan afterwards. When the pictures from a given day are from a specific location or event, I often tack on a word or two to jog my memory as well.

So on my computer you'll find a folder structure something like this:

My Pictures
2011
01-05-2011-kidsathome
01-20-2011-Grace2MonthPortraits
01-22-2011-BlogPhotos

etc.

(One more thing to note: Windows sorts folders in Alphabetical, not Numerical order. So if you want to make sure that January always appears ahead of December, make sure you put a zero in front of the one for all January folders!)

3. Select all the photos from your camera card, and drag them into the new folder.

Simple as that: your photos are copied to your computer!

At this point, you can delete the photos from your camera, or you can wait until you actually run out of space on the card if you like the security of one more back up.

If you need a little more detail on copying photos from your camera to your computer, there's a good description of the process here - scroll to the bottom for the article.

Workflow Step 2: Review and Edit in Picasa

1. If Picasa is not already open, open it now. Once it starts, you'll probably see a small pop-up window on the lower right of your screen showing its progress of scanning and indexing your new photos. You will also see a large number of thumbnails of your photos. This is called the "library" view.

2. Using the "Folder" view on the left hand side of Picasa's window, navigate to the folder containing the photos you just copied.

You will notice that Picasa organizes all folders by date - that is, the date they were created, not necessarily the date included in the folder's name. It also displays a "flat" file structure - that is, it shows only folders that contain photos, and it does not visually display folders that are "inside" of other folders. If you've spent a lot of time inside of windows and have a good feel for the underlying file system you may find this confusing or restrictive; otherwise it should probably feel very natural to you!

3. Review your photos by double clicking on the photo's thumbnail, then navigating through each image using the arrow keys.

During this first pass I delete any obviously unsalvageable photos - those badly out of focus, significantly over or under exposed, or containing sensitive family members with goofy looks on their faces. ;) Don't go too crazy, though: you may be surprised how well Picasa can solve under-exposure, red-eye, and even (mild) blurriness, not to mention color balance problems, cropping issues, and etc.

On the first pass I also typically use the "star" function to mark my best photos for later review and use, especially when I shot 100+ photos of a single event!

On the better photos I also frequently use the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button (left panel in Picasa) to see if the program can do a quick-and-dirty fix to make my good photo even better. Often it can. Other times I am not happy with its automatic color and contrast correction and decide to use finer-grained controls (either in Picasa or Gimp) later.

4. Perform a second pass on your starred photos

These are the photos that I think I may use in a scrapbook page, print for the grandparents, or etc.

Near the top center of Picasa's window, you will see a "Filters" label. The first button is a star. When you click it, only starred photos are displayed.

During this pass I fix red-eye, fine-tune contrast and color balance, and occasionally even crop or use one of the artistic effects. All these functions are accessible on one of the three tabs that display when you are viewing a photo full sized (as opposed to a thumbnail in the library.)

If you intend to make use of Picasa's "People" or "Tags" capabilities, this would be the time to do it.

I have never gotten in the habit of using either feature heavily, and sometimes I regret it.

The Tags and People panels are turned on and off using buttons on the lower left of Picasa's window, in both library and single photo view. "Tags" allows you to assign key-words to your photos. Logical options would be place names, event names, etc. Later you can easily search for tags inside of Picasa.

Similarly, "People" allows you to identify individuals in your photos. Picasa does a reasonable job of picking out faces automatically, and even does a decent job of matching names to faces once you have a good catalog. This can be handy later on when you need a photo of Grandma and can't remember when you last visited her!

5. Save your changes.

Picasa maintains all changes you've made only internally by default. They are never stored to your hard drive until you explicitly tell it to do so. So if you need to use the photo elsewhere - perhaps you want to print it at Costco, or use it inside a scrapbook page - you need to save it.

You can do this in a couple of ways.

(a) select the photo or photos you want to save and hit Cntrl-S, or File-Save.

(b) At the top of your folder in "Library" view, click the "disk" button next to the star icon.

In either case Picasa will ask you to confirm your decision, and will also reassure you that it is making a backup of the originals.

(This is critical, BTW: the first law of digital photo editing is "Never Overwrite the Original!" Picasa saves those originals in a hidden folder inside the folder where you copied the photos. You'll need to set Windows to display hidden files if you need to find them someday.)

A couple of notes

Picasa and Gimp have a lot of overlap. Deciding to use one vs. the other is a question of "good" vs. "good enough," with "time" and "ease" on the other side of the equation.

For instance, I use Picasa to fix red eye because it's quick and easy, and doing the same task in Gimp is complicated.

I sometimes use the "I'm feeling lucky" button, but I also use Gimp's color balance controls instead of or on top of this. They're harder to use, but offer more control.

I rarely use Picasa's "Sharpen" effect because Gimp's "Unsharp Mask" is both easy to use and significantly better.

Depending on your experience and comfort with the two programs you may choose differently.

OK, that's enough for this entry. Next time we'll cover my workflow for managing Scrapbook "supplies" - i.e. the paper, alphas, and embellishments you've been downloading.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

How To Digi-Scrap for Free (or very nearly): Part 1

2010-11-18T14:59:00.002-08:00

Approximately one year ago, I purchased a beautiful new laptop on a Black Friday sale. Since that time I have become immersed in the world of digital scrapbooking. My paper supplies have all but mouldered in the garage while I've digi-scrapped literally hundreds of pages of my son's first year, my niece, our courtship, and our family life. I've printed more than a hundred pages at 12x12 while keeping my monetary investment to about $1.25/page, including S&H and the plastic page protector.

I've purchased no paper, no glue, and no shnazzy little metal brads that you just Know you're going to use but immediately get lost in the bottom of the bag. Perhaps more surprisingly I've also purchased no software, digital paper, elements, or fonts. All I've done is filled up my hard-drive!

Sample digi-scrap page. Kit used from Suzanne C. Walker- www.digitalscrapbookplace.com

This a multi-part series covering software and organizational techniques as well as (so far) exactly one tutorial on actually creating a digital page.

This post is an overview where I hit the highlights of free graphics software and free digital downloads

See the additional entries here:

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

A quick blurb about my background: I've been using computers since my family owned a TI99-4A back in the mid 80's, and I've been using graphics software of some description for at least 12 or 15 years. I'm a PC person, not a Mac , although I've never gone as far as Linux! Still, I don't want to pretend that all of this is super-simple-intuitive to the uninitiated non-geek.

Frankly, if you have no time or patience whatsoever to learn digi-scrapping but still want a slick

bound book to give to the grandparents, your best bet is to use one of the myriad online

drag-and-drop programs such as are available everywhere from Costco to Walgreens, Picaboo, Smilebox, or Snapfish. You won't even pay through the nose. And if you do want to do "real" from-scratch digi-scrapping, you will probably find it Easier to use commercial software such as Adobe Photo Elements (~$100) if for no other reason than that all the tutorials and help files assume this is what you've got installed. My way is simply cheaper!

So, let's get started!

Software

Your first can't-live-without program is Google's Picasa. (picasa.google.com)

This software manages your photo collection quickly and easily, performs about 80% of the color correction, red-eye removal, cropping, and sharpening you need, and has a good handful of special effects built in. You can ID people in your photos, add stars or tags to help you find them again, and upload your favorites to free online albums.

I also use it to manage my digi-scrap supplies, although it is not truly designed for it. I've evolved several techniques to help which I will share in a later post.

Your second integral piece of software is Gimp. (www.gimp.org)

This oddly named creature is an open-source full fledged graphics editor that will remind an old hand very strongly of Photoshop. Created first and foremost for Linux, there is nevertheless a very stable Windows versions available. I installed it when my laptop was brand new, and then never got around to digging out my paid-for copy of Paint Shop Pro. Gimp has a lot of advantages over the former - not to mention the free bit. It can handle layers, text, color correction, sharpening, custom brushes and special effects. And yes, it can read multi-layered Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, PGP, and a myriad of other file types, rarely losing anything of real importance in the process. This is the program you'll use to actually assemble your pages.

Sample digi-scrap page. Elements mostly from mydreamfulfilled.blogspot.com and digitalscrapbookexperts.com; others homemade.

Digital Paper and Embellishments

Now that you've got your photos and layout software, you need some fun paper, stickers, and letters to add to your pages.

There are a zillion places online that want to sell you what you need very badly - one of the first that springs to mind is ScrapGirls.com, who also publishes a nice (free) daily newsletter. As mentioned above, I've never actually purchased anything from any of these sites. My basic impression, however, is that you end up paying $3 to $10 for each "kit," or perhaps around 25-50% of what you'd spend for physical materials at the craft store.

Thankfully, there are also an amazing array of people who want to give you your scrapping supplies for free. Sure, some of what's out there is low quality and even amateurish, but much is really very good. I'm not going to try and build a comprehensive directory of free scrapping materials - it's been done. I will, however, mention a few of my go-to sites.

My very favorite: Dreamsfulfilled (mydreamfulfilled.blogspot.com)
This wonderful lady posts free kits or kit pieces several times a month, and the quality is excellent. There's also an extensive archive. You could get everything you ever needed and more from this single source.
Scrapity Scrap (scrapityscrapandmore.blogspot.com) sells many of her kits, but also has a great freebie section. Some of her kits are huge with 15-20 papers and 30-40 elements. Again, very high quality.
ShabbyPrincess (shabbyprincess.com) sells most of their kits, but it is more than worth snagging their freebies. I think they may take first place in terms of quality and beauty.
A new favorite: Design House Digital. Get on their mailing list: most of their stuff is for-pay, but they release free mini-kits 1-3 times a week. Very good quality.
The Skrappy Kat has released several very nice free kits which I found most easily archived at www.foreverfreedownloads.com. StuffToScrap.com also has a good freebie section, mostly of relatively small packages of add-ons or ready-made pages that coordinate with their for-sale kits.
2 Peas In A Bucket (http://www.twopeasinabucket.com) sells physical scrapping supplies, but also has a nice collection of free fonts that I find myself returning to again and again.
Finally, I do subscribe to DigitalScrapbookExperts.com's collect-a-kit newsletter. They also sell most of their stuff, but if you're willing to get a daily e-mail you can download one piece at a time of some fairly nice kits.

Digi-Supplies Tips:

When starting out, resist the urge to download everything in sight - unless it's from Shabby Princess! ;)
It's going to take a lot of bandwidth and hard drive space (kits commonly run 30+ megs), and as fun as "shopping" is, you don't want to overwhelm yourself with supplies such that you can barely decide where to start.
Moreover, I've found that what I use over and over is not what I downloaded in the first months of my habit. It took time to figure out my style, what was easy and what was difficult to utilize, and therefore what to bother downloading. (For instance, I almost never use "Alphas" - that is, fancy decorated letters applied one at a time like chipboard or stickers. I've learned to do my own in less time. I also practically never use pre-made pages or templates. You, however, may be different!)
When assessing freebies, make sure that you're getting true 12x12 size at 300 dpi. That means your "papers" will be 3600x3600 pixels. If they're smaller, you may not be able to print out at an acceptable quality, and nothing is going to irritate you more than to spend 6 hours on a page that looks all "pixely" when printed.
(This, by the way, is - aside from pure piracy concerns - what stops you from simply grabbing any ol' clip-art from the internet and throwing it on your pages. If you do a little research, you'll find that your largest images are around 1024x768 but usually much smaller. These are going to print out at about 3 inches wide at best!)

Printing

If there's a fly in the ointment of digi-scrapping, it's getting your final product onto paper.

I don't know about you, but I don't own a 12x12 printer! In fact, for reasons to numerous to list I've sworn never to own another ink-jet / photo printer, period: all we have is a B&W laser. Costco serves for most of my photo printing needs: they do not have the lowest price 4x6 print, but their larger prints are considerably cheaper than other local options and they're easy to use.

Unfortunately, their 12x12 prints are still $3. They're beautiful, but it adds up fast! My local warehouse also prints a 12x24 for the $4, so you could print 2 to a page and cut them in half. But, not all warehouses offer it, and you have to order in-store, not online.

The alternative is ScrapbooksPlease.com. They have three quality levels, the cheapest of which is about $1 regular price if memory serves. However, I was not happy with this "Value Matte" print. The paper is fairly flimsy, the colors not all that impressive, there's a 1/4 inch white border, and the ink feels like crayon. On the other hand, I've been perfectly happy with the next level up ("Standard Matte") which is regularly $2 plus shipping. This still ends up a little less than Costco. But if you're patient, they have approximately quarterly sales where either their Standard prints are $1 or shipping is free if you spend a certain amount. Get on their mailing list!

What this site is Not is user friendly. The interface is clunky at best. You can upload a few at a time thru the web, or they have a piece of client-side uploading software for streamlining large uploads (i.e. you install it on your hard-drive and use it to select your images and then send to the server.) Neither option is easy. The client-side software takes forever to find and "thumbnail" your images and then figuring out exactly how to add them to the queue is non-intuitive. (Helpful tip: If there are more than 100 images in your directory, numbers 100+ will not show. I actually had to move the extras to another location so I could load them.) Perhaps worst of all, neither your "album" on the website nor the client-side software allows you to re-order your images by filename or date, and should the upload crash half-way through a big upload (mine does all the time!) you'll have no real idea what's been successfully transfered or not. I found myself carefully comparing the online album against my laptop and taking notes of the missing files on post-it's. Ugh!

And prepare yourself: regardless of which online printer you use, the upload is going to take time - probably many hours if you're doing 20 or 30 pages. Even when you're paying for decent broadband the bandwidth equation is balanced in favor of downloads, and your digital pages are going to be anywhere from 6 to 16 megabytes even in JPG format.

What it boils down to: Use Costco if you're in a hurry, don't want to pay shipping, and want a less painful uploading experience. You can even take your files over to the warehouse on a thumb drive and avoid the whole bandwidth problem entirely.

But for absolute economy, I haven't been able to beat ScrapbooksPlease.com.

OK, that's enough for post #1. The next post in this series will cover establishing a digital

workflow - which is geek-speak for nailing down which programs to use for what purpose, when, and in which order.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Family Flash Cards for Toddlers

2010-09-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Wow, I see from my last posting date that it's been eons since I had a free brain-cell or two to do any crafts (scrapbooking aside), let alone tutorials. But fear not: today's entry is a very simple little project that makes my toddler happy.

My son has a whole boatload of cousins, uncles, aunts, plus grand and great-grandparents who live in Florida or Texas, and I want him to at least see their faces from time to time so we don't forget they exist. So, I made him a set of "flash cards" of both his local and cross-country family members. It's clipped to his diaper bag or other handy location so he can play with it anywhere.

Materials

Photos of baby's favorite people, labeled and printed at 3x4 inches
1 pack of vinyl badge holders, vertical orientation, size 3x4 inches. *
8 or so inches of 1/4 inch wide ribbon
Small carbiner clip or plastic link from the toy box

* I bought GBC brand badge holders from Office Max, 12 for $5. I see on their website they have many more options than that had in store with considerable quantity discounts.

The plastic is a little more rigid than I would prefer: I think my boy will eventually crimp or even break them. Also there's an irritating "GBC" embossed stamp on the back.

Office Depot sells some in a softer vinyl at the same price; however they're smaller than 3x4 - at an estimate, 2.5 x 3.5. If you get them, you'll have to measure and resize your photos appropriately.

Tools

Software for editing photos
Scissors and/or paper cutter

Skills

Semi-advanced photo editing or "digi-scrap" abilities

Steps

(I use a free image editor called Gimp for resizing, rotating, labeling, color correcting, and sharpening my photos. These instructions are written assuming you're using it or one of its commercial competitors such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel PaintShopPro, etc.

Don't own one of these and no time for the learning curve? Alternate instructions for using Google's very simple and free Picasa software are at the end.)

1. Using the image editing software of your choice, resize a *copy of* your photos to 3x4 inches at 300 dpi, or whatever dpi you or your lab prefers for printing.

2. Add a solid bar somewhere on the photo where it doesn't get in the way, and label each photo. I used the "Sans Bold" font.

3. Happily, you can fit exactly 2 3x4 photos on a 4x6 print. Rotate all of your photos to Portrait orientation, enlarge the canvas of 1/2 of them to 4x6, and paste in the second photo.

Your images will be laid out something like this:

4. Assuming that, like me, you've sworn never to own another ink-jet, upload your photos to your favorite lab, i.e. Costco ($0.13 for each 4x6 print)

5. Wait one hour, run up to Costco, pay them about $0.90 for your prints, and grab those diaper wipes they've got on sale on the way out. Oh, and stop by the food court for one of their $1 mochas. Much happiness!

6. Back home, carefully trim each photo in half with your scissors or paper cutter. Arrange each pair back to back and slide them into a badge holder.

(Note: I found that my holders were a hair under 3 inches wide in practice. I sliced an extra 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch off the long edge of each photo and was able to load them much more easily.)

7. Loop your ribbon through the whole deck and tie a knot at the top. Thread your carbiner or toy clip through the ribbon, and hand to your kid. Watch with satisfaction as he quickly locates the picture of Grandma and exclaims over it

Alternate instructions for Picasa users

1. Select your first photo, crop to 4x6, and use the Text tool (Basic Fixes tab) to add a label. You can't add a solid colored box as in my images, but you can change color, font. and even transparency to your heart's content.

2. Repeat for each additional photo.

3. Rotate every photo so that it is in Portrait orientation (that is, short edge horizontal, long edge vertical.) Do this even if the photo itself is in Landscape orientation.

4. Select your first two photos. Choose the "Collage" button (bottom center, or under the "Create" menu at the top.)

5. In the Collage creator, choose the Mosaic or Grid option. Under "Page Format," choose "4x6: Small Print." Play around with the grid spacing and other options. When done, click "Create Collage." Picasa saves your image to the Collage album, which you can locate afterwards.

6. Repeat for each remaining image pair.

7. Follow steps 4-7 from above to complete your project.

Sippy Cup Leash

2010-01-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

Last night at the restaurant I witnessed a small child using an absolutely ingenious device: a little leash that connected his sippy cup to his highchair. As it happened, just days before my little one dropped our favorite cup (the one with his name on it and everything) on the floor one too many times and a handle snapped off. Very sad. I'll glue it (eventually), but it's not going to be able to take too many more encounters with the solid surfaces.
I could have purchased one online, but since I had nothing better to do (HAH!), I decided to make a couple instead. I used materials I had on hand so each was a little different. They're easy as pie, so I'll just toss in a couple of pics and that'll be all you need.

Here's James using his new sippy leash. Isn't he cute? It hangs down far enough he could reach it when crawling around on the floor too, which he also enjoyed.

One cautionary note: You're doing a balancing act here between allowing enough length for your baby to reach his cup but not enough to get himself into trouble. I made mine about 18 inches long. Technically that's enough to go around his neck. Frankly I probably won't be using it in the car where I can't see him, nor allowing it to be loose where he can reach it. I'd hate for him to hurt himself.

You have been cautioned!

Materials

18" - 20" of nylon strap / webbing, 1 inch wide

8" - 10" of 1/2 inch wide elastic

Cord lock
Either

metal or plastic spring-loaded clasp (like for a dog leash or)

a couple of inches of strong ribbon or cord

about 2" more of elastic
Or (best)

plastic back-pack buckle, 1 inch wide

Tools

Sewing Machine (you could do it by hand, but it wouldn't be much fun)

Scissors

Candle

Here's what you're making
Option 1

Option 2

Steps
1. Cut your webbing strap to size, and use the candle to melt the cut ends so they won't fray.

2. If using the plastic slider buckle, thread your webbing through the female piece so it can move up and down the strap freely, then loop it through the male piece. Fold it over about an inch, and sew a strong seam across. I went back and forth 2-3 times and used a zig-zag stitch.

3. If you are using a metal spring-loaded catch, thread it onto the scrap of cord or strong ribbon and fold the ribbon in half. Attach the ribbon or cord to one end of the webbing with a strong seam.

Next you are going to make a "poor man's catch" with the scrap of elastic.
Wrap the bit of elastic around the webbing about 6 inches up. Tie a good knot. The elastic should crimp the webbing, not be loose. You want to be able to adjust the size of the loop. Your metal catch will snap on here.

4. Fold your piece of elastic in half and thread the folded end through your cable lock. Sew a strong seam to attach the elastic to the other end of the nylon webbing.

6. Optional (I didn't do this - yet): Tie a knot or another scrap of elastic around the midpoint of the elastic loop so that the cord lock won't slip off even if yanked to the end.

That's all there is to it!

To use, all you do is slip the elastic loop around your sippy cup or bottle, and adjust the size with the cord lock.

Use the buckle or metal catch to attach the opposite end to a high chair, stroller, or wherever your little one is sitting.

Enjoy!

Make a jar of Microwave Brownie Mug Mix

2009-07-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

I learned how to make mug brownies from this instructable. After making them for myself a couple of times, I got the idea to make a mix from the dry ingredients and give it to a friend as a birthday gift.

Mix Recipe:
1 C flour
1 C sugar
1/2 C cocoa powder (unsweetened)
About 1/8 tsp salt, give or take

Sift together. If you don't own a sifter (like me), make sure you mix Really well and get all the lumps out of the cocoa powder.
I doubled the recipe above and put into a large glass Adams peanut butter jar. I covered the jar lid with some pretty fabric and ribbon, printed out the recipe (below) and taped it to the jar. Instant yummy present!

To make a single serving from the mix, put 1/2 C plus 2 Tbsp of mix in a mug, and add 2 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp water. Mix well, and microwave for about 1 minute. You can sub 1 Tbsp applesauce for 1 Tbsp of the oil without impacting the texture or flavor.

Make a drawsting backpack from a T-shirt

2009-07-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

I know there are a zillion tutorials for draw-string backpacks out there. I didn't use any of them in coming up with this design, which requires just three seams (not counting the pocket or applique design). It also goes together in a big hurry: exclusive of the decoration it took me about 30 minutes, including photography. :)

Materials:

* T-shirt. A child's large makes a good adult sized backpack
* Scraps (i.e. sleeves) from a second T-shirt in contrasting color, about 4x6 inches
* Optional: Scraps in a third color, about 4x6 inches
* Nylon cord, length about 2x the height of your T-shirt plus about 8 inches (I got my purple cord in a big skein from the hardware store for about $3. It comes in several neon colors.)
* Embroidery floss in contrasting color
* Stencil-style pattern for reverse applique design (I got my dino from Resene.co.nz)
* Optional: beads for eyes or other accents; buttons, charms etc.
* Optional: 1 or 3 cord locks

Tools:
* Sewing scissors
* (Important) Embroidery scissors - small bladed and very sharp. Like these. Mine weren't Ghinger brand, and cost about $6 or $8.
* Sewing machine - technically optional if you don't mind hand-sewing a couple long seams
* Disappearing ink fabric pen, chalk, or transfer paper

If you are unfamiliar with reverse applique or just want to make it easier on yourself, it would probably be simpler to applique the design on the pocket / patch prior to constructing the bag. I was in a hurry to use the bag and did the applique later.

Instructions for bag:

* Cut sleeves off T-shirt, as close to seam as possible. Save for another project, or for pocket / patch on this project

* Position patch / pocket on front of T-shirt

Notes on this step:
     * You could use 1/2 of one of the T-shirt sleeves you just cut off, layered over a contrasting color or vice-versa.
     * Or, you can use two different colors, one layered over the other - this is what I did.
     * If making a pocket, position a finished edge for the pocket opening.
Position patch / pocket about 4-6 inches down and in the center. If you are doing the applique later, make sure you layer the two colors carefully so you can stitch both down at the same time.

* Machine-sew patch / pocket to T, using zig-zag stitch and being very careful not to catch the back of the T in the seam. Leave the top open if you want it to be a pocket.

I intentionally used a contrasting color of thread in the machine, and left the edges raw. If you want, using a matching color and turn under the edges for a more finished look.
* Optional: I found that my pocket was wide enough it gaped open when the bag was in use. I added a large button and hand-sewed a button hole using a blanket stitch.

* Turn T inside-out. Sew shut the arm holes, again using a zig-zag stitch to allow for stretch.

* Optional: Use a pin to mark a point about 1/2 way down each arm hole. Sew a diagonal line pin to neck opening. The shape of your bag will be a bit better.

* Trim about four inches of the finished edge from T-shirt in contrasting color, or sleeve trim from base T-shirt. Cut into two, two-inch pieces and fold in half. Pin one inside each corner at bottom of T, loop facing up.

* Sew the bottom of the T shut, back-stitching one or two times across each loop

* Using embroidery scissors, snip a very small hole in the neck binding on the *back* of the T-shirt - that is, the side that does not have the patch / pocket.
Thread the nylon cord into this hole and back out again, using a bodkin or large safety pin for assistance.

Even though the neck binding won't fray much, this hole will get a lot of abuse: it would probably be good to button-hole it by hand, perhaps with a blanket-stitch, or simple whip stitch. (Tutorials abound...)

* Center cord in neck hold, and thread cord-lock / toggle into place. (If you don't want to spring for a cord lock, you could tie a simple knot - NOT a square knot - around the cord. If your cord is thick enough, this will slide quite nicely.

* Using a lighter or candle flame, carefully melt each raw end of the cord to prevent fraying. A strong craft glue would probably also do the trick.

* If using cord locks, thread one on each end of the cord. Run each end of the cord through one of the loops at the bottom of the T and back into the cord lock. Secure with a knot. Alternately, thread each end of cord through one of the loops and tie it around itself to make a sliding knot.

That's it: your bag is done! Open and close the bag by sliding the top cord lock. Adjust the straps by sliding the bottom cord locks / knots up and down.

Instructions for Reverse-Applique Pocket Design
* Using the transfer method of your choice, copy the design you are going to applique onto the pocket.

I used my trusty disappearing ink pen and traced around my pattern

* Using 2-3 strands of embroidery floss and a simple running stitch, sew around the outline of your shape. If you already attached the pocket to the front of your bag (and you're using it as a pocket, not a patch), take care Not to sew through to the bag fabric. But on the other hand, make sure to go through both layers of the pocket itself! I placed a piece of card-stock inside the pocket to stop my needle.

* Using embroidery scissors, carefully cut through the *first layer only* inside the design, staying about 1/8 inch from the seam. (If you are very careful you can re-use the piece you cut out as a standard applique on another project.)
If desired, add a bead for an eye.

That's it! This technique can be used lots of places - on T-shirts, headbands, etc - anywhere you're using a non-fraying fabric. See The Alabama Stitch Book for lots more ideas.

Make a Monster from Dollar Store materials

2009-06-27T20:09:00.001-07:00

Browsing through the dollar store the other day, a couple of bright soft cleaning clothes caught my eye. They seemed far too pretty to be used for so mundane a task as dusting so I took them home and turned them into a monster for my little boy.

Materials:

* Two cleaning clothes from the dollar store in different colors
* Thread or embroidery floss in colors to match the fabric
* Small amount of Polyfill stuffing, or use fabric scraps.
* Two safety animal eyes (optional: you could use buttons if not giving to a small child, or embroidery)
* A small pill box with a tight fitting lid and a few kernels of unpopped popcorn or rice (optional, for rattle. I got my pill box at REI for $0.40. You could also use a plastic cap from a pop bottle sealed with a piece of cardboard and tape, although this would render the finished piece unwashable. You could also use a jingle bell, with the same drawback.)

Tools:
* Scissors
* Paper for making the pattern
* Needle, or sewing machine

Skills:
* Hand sewing or machine sewing
* Confidence to draw your own pattern

Instructions:
* Draw pattern on 8x10 piece of paper, using photo as a rough guide.

The basic shape for the body is a squared-off egg. I traced around a water glass for the curve for the head. The arm / leg shape is roughly the same, but at about 1/6 the size.
* Cut the pattern out with paper scissors. Use pins to attach to cleaning clothes and cut pieces as follows
* Cut two body pieces from green cloth, with the edge along one of the "selvages" (that is, the finished edge) of the cloth
* Cut two head pieces from the orange cloth, adding about 1/2 inch for seam allowance
* Cut eight arm / leg pieces from the second cloth
* Match one head and body piece, sliding the right side of the head under the right side of the body about 1/2 inch. Sew with a simple running stitch.

* Match the wrong sides together of the arm / leg pieces to make four sets. Sew with a running or whip stitch. I found a whip stitch easier as it made for a smaller seam allowance.
* Turn arms and legs right side out and stuff with a small amount of polyfill

* To attach the safety eyes, cut two very small slits in the face piece in the desired location. Slide the eyes through and fasten the washer. It takes a little muscle to get it on, but it won't easily come off again!

* On the right side of the monster, lay out the arms and legs on the right side of the monster body as shown in the photo

* Lay the other half of the body / head piece over the top, right side down. Pin arms and legs in place firmly.
* Sew body pieces together, taking care to go through all four layers at arms and legs. Again, I found a whip stitch easiest. Be sure to leave 1/2 of the head open for turning!
* Turn the monster right side out.
* If making a rattle, add the popcorn to the pill box. If desired, super-glue it shut to make a water-tight seal. Place pill box inside monster.

* Stuff monster with pollyfill
* Sew shut the second half of the head with the invisible stitch of your choice. The orange fabric is so fuzzy, though, that nothing much is going to show.
* Give to small child. Try to ignore the screams: he'll grown into it!

Optional Customizations:
* Cut a 1 inch length of the finished edge from the green cloth and attach to the center of the collar on back of the monster. Now you can attach a loop or clip for hanging from a toy bar
* Cut a similar length of finished edge from the orange cloth and sew in back for a tail
* Embroider a design on front of monster's "shirt"
* Add a mouth cut from felt, or embroidered

Baby Play Gym

2009-06-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

Check out my instructions for this project in Instructable format

Make a Nursing Cover from Dollar-Store Materials

2009-06-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

One of the easiest and most useful baby items you can make for yourself is a Nursing Cover (aka a Hooter Hider). There are dozens of tutorials for this project out there; the difference in mine is that all (or at least nearly all) of the materials may be obtained at a Dollar store, and the total cost should be $3 or less.

Materials:

* Receiving blanket from the dollar store (or an existing receiving blanket you aren't using for baby, or piece of nice flannel or cotton of the same size, purchased on sale at the fabric store. In the latter case, you'll need to serge or otherwise hem the other three edges.)
* Roughly 2 ft of ribbon, preferably grossgrain
* 12 to 14 inches of nylon boning from the craft store (see picture). It's $3.29/yard at my local store, meaning you need just over a dollar's worth. You could also use a pipe cleaner, as long as you sew your casing with open ends so it can be removed for cleaning. You might even be able to use a cable zip-tie, although I am not sure it would be long enough.
* Extra Credit: 1 or 2 baby washcloths (which come 3-4 to the pack at Dollar Tree)

Tools:
* Scissors
* A few pins
* Sewing Machine
OR
* Needle and Thread

Instructions:
* Lay out your blanket, and locate the center of the long side by folding it in half. Mark with a pin.
* Take your piece of boning, pipe cleaner, zip tie, or whatever you are using for stiffening, and center it across the midpoint of the blanket on the wrong side. Fold the fabric over approx. 1/2 inch and pin in place at either end. Make sure the curve of the boning is facing "outwards" towards the right side.
* Cut 2 ~10 inch pieces of ribbon, and tie a solid knot about 1/2 inch from one end of each piece.

* Pin the un-knotted end of the ribbons to either end of the boning. You may want to fold the ends under once or twice to hide the raw edge.

* Sew by hand or machine from one ribbon to the other, making sure not to run into the boning since your needle will not appreciate it. If desired, sew all the way along the long edge of the blanket: I just did the 12 inches or so in the center.
* If you've used a washable "stiffener" (i.e. not a pipe cleaner), you may wish to sew shut the opening at both ends so it will not come out. Otherwise leave it open so you can remove the pipe cleaner for washing.

* Lay your two sections of ribbon out such that they cross near the ends with the knots overlapping. Take a ~2-3 inch piece of ribbon and tie it tightly around the two pieces. You now have an adjustable strap: just pull on the knotted ends of the ribbon to change the size.

* That's it! To use, simply slip the ribbons over your head and drape the whole blanket over the baby and the pieces of your anatomy you wish to conceal during nursing. When baby gets bigger, give him the blanket as a "superhero" cape. Just be sure you supervise to avoid choking!

* Extra Credit: Fold a washcloth into a triangle and sew into each bottom corner of your cover. Place right sides together and sew the two outer edges of the triangle, then turn right side out and sew across the hypotenuse. Now you Always have a burp rag to wipe baby's face after nursing! :)

Make a Cross-over Nursing T out of a Standard T

2009-06-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

After my son was born, I quickly learned a couple of things. (1) I wasn't going to be wearing my "normal" clothes for a while yet, and (2) Nursing shirts are worth their weight in gold - which is unfortunate, since manufacturers seem to understand this and charge accordingly. Even at the resale shop I was paying $10+ for a workable garment. So, I started thinking about how I could make my own.
Here's what I came up with. There are no funny flaps or potentially embarrassing slits or anything, so this could easily work as a general purpose garment: just sew both layers together clear to the top as mentioned in step 4.

Materials:
* 1 XL T-shirt, or a T at least 1 and preferably 2 sizes larger than your ordinary size. I got mine for about $3 at the craft store.
* Embroidery or standard thread in matching or contrasting color
* Sew-on Snap (if making nursing T)

Tools:
* Scissors
* Needle

Skills:
* Basic hand sewing

Instructions:
A few disclaimers and tips first...
I "hacked" this. I didn't measure anything, or draw diagrams or even mark my cutting line. I'm willing to wear the finished product, but you could do better!
You're going to want to try on the shirt a few times during sewing so you can be sure it's fitting, and that it's modest!

1. Cut off the neck ribbing. I cut below the stitching line on the front, and above it on the back. (See photos below, especially in steps 6 and 7)

2. Following the diagram, cut up the front of the T. Adjust the width on the bottom left according to your size. It should be wider if you are smaller, and narrower if you are larger. You should try the shirt on before cutting and see how much excess width you have.

3. Fold the left side of the cut to the right side of the shirt and pin. Try on the T to make sure it fits, and adjust as necessary.

4. Using three strands of embroidery floss (or 2 of standard thread) and a simple running stitch, sew both layers of the T together up to point A (if making a nursing T) or point B (if making a general purpose T) If you are making a nursing shirt, make sure that point A is low enough to allow shirt to be pulled over to allow baby access.

UPDATE:

A running stitch works, but it wasn't very attractive and eventually frayed. A year later I redid this step with a zig-zag, which stretches better and looks nicer. There's a tutorial for a similar stitch here, but note I didn't complete the "x's" the way it shows: I just did the zig-zag.

Of course, you Could use a sewing machine here if you wished.

5. If making nursing T, install snap at point B. Try it on first and make sure it hangs properly. Mark snap location on both layers with a pin or disappearing fabric marker. You may need two snaps set a couple inches apart if you're a larger woman.

6. So far we've taken a lot of width out of the front of the shirt but none in the back. This will stop it from hanging properly off your shoulders: we need to modify the back to so that the seams will be near the top of your shoulders.

To do so, fold "darts" in the back of the T along the neckline to gather up excess fabric. The folds should meet in the center.
I found it easiest to do this while wearing the T so I could be sure it was fitting. I held the layers together temporarily with a clip.

7. Sew through all 3-4 layers of fabric with a whip stitch.

8. Now put it on, gather hungry baby, and take it for a test drive.

9. Whoops, he spit up on it. Throw it in the washing machine... and calculate how many of these you need before you can cut back to laundry every 3 days or less!

UPDATE: Admittedly what I've shown in steps 6 and 7 is not the most elegant solution, because you end up with a fairly thick "knot" at the back of your neck.

Instead of making a gather as shown, you could remove the excess width by cutting a strip out of the center of the back the T and then sewing it back together with a decorative zig-zag or X stitch.

Just be careful not to take too much out: Calculate a minimum of 1/2 an inch of seam allowance for instance. Also, the entire shirt will be narrower around the hips, unless instead of a strip you cut a "V."

I made a second shirt this way, but was not convinced the result was superior. Experiment with caution!

Clip-On Shopping Bag Holder

2009-05-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

I guess I've been a little obsessed with cute but functional containers lately. This "Bob the Tomato" bag dispenser was inspired by this post on "Instructables," but I don't know (or much care) who "Domo Kun" is, so I decided to go with my old favorite Veggie Tales character instead.

I ended up making two versions of this bag holder: the first, made from 4 inch circles, was too small for my shopping bag and didn't look much like Bob when stuffed. (But, I can still use it for my non-rolled diaper bags - see Diaper Disposal Bag Dispenser tutorial from a couple weeks back.) The instructions and pictures are from the larger version, made from 5 inch circles, but if you're careful you can make a smaller version that fits a bit better on a key chain.

Materials:

* Scrap of red fleece, at least 5x10 inches. Felt would work if it needed to, but wouldn't be as strong.
* Scraps of white, green, and black felt or fleece
* Embroidery thread in white and red
* Glue
* Clip of some sort
* Re-usable grocery sack made out of something very compressible like rip-stop nylon. I made mine, but that's a project for a different tutorial. :)

Tools:
* Needle
* Scissors
* CD or glassware for circle template
* Picture of "Bob" to work from

Skills:
* Hand-sewing, including Whip Stitch and straight stitch.
* The confidence to cut out eyes, mouths, and whatnot without much of a pattern.

Instructions:
* Cut out two circles of red fleece using a CD as a template. (CDs are 5 inches in diameter.)

* Cut a hole in one of the pieces of fleece the shape of Bob's mouth. Note: it's hard to get a fabric marker to show up on fleece. You could try a Sharpie, or eyeball it like me. Or you could make a template out of paper and cut around it.
* Cut two rectangles of white felt, each about the size of Bob's mouth.

Arrange on the wrong side of the red fleece such that the bottom piece entirely covers the mouth hole, and the top piece overlaps about 1/2 way.
Sew the "smile" portion of the bottom piece in place using red thread and a straight or back stitch.

Careful: Don't sew the whole mouth shut or there won't be a hole for your bags to come out!
Finish sewing just the top piece across the top of Bob's mouth. (I know, you can't see the stitching in this picture 'cause they're hidden behind the flap.) From the front, it will look like this:

* Cut eyes for Bob out of white felt. On the smaller version I cut two separate circles and simply glued them in place. On the larger version, I cut a pair of joined circles and sewed them in place with a whip stitch in white thread. I stuffed them with minuscule felt scraps - Polyfill would also work, of course.

* Cut a circle for Bob's nose a little larger than it needs to be.
If you're not feeling very confident, you can put a line of running stitches around this circle, add some stuffing, and cinch it partially closed to get the nice "nose" shape. Then, using a whip stitch you can secure it between the eyes and mouth. However, I skipped straight to the whip stitch and just added the stuffing a few stitches before closing the circle.

* Cut and glue tiny black pieces of felt for the pupils. Cut and glue or whip-stitch a scrap of red fleece for his eyelids.

* Make a loop of fleece (possibly from the selvage edge - make sure to cut against the stretch), run it through your clip, and pin it in place on the right side of your second fleece circle. (If you're using split-ring or other openable attachment, you just need to sew in its loop right now.)

Note: Clearly, this should be green, as tomatoes rarely have red stems. But I didn't have any green fleece and wasn't willing to trust craft felt at this stress point. :)

* Place the right sides of your fleece circles together, making sure the clip and its loop are at the top, and are *inside* your "sandwich." Using a whip stitch again, sew the circles together. Make sure to reinforce the loop attachment.

Note: You should be able to turn the finished product right-side out through the mouth hole. If you don't want to risk stretching things, you can leave an inch or so opening for turning, then finish up with a slip stitch once you have it right-side out.

* Cut some "leaves" out of a scrap of green felt. (I cut an oval, folded it in half, and then cut random triangles around the perimeter to get a symmetrical shape.) Cut a slit just large enough for your clip or clip-loop to fit through.

* Slip it on and secure with glue or a few stitches in green thread.

* Hey, you're done! Shove your shopping bag into Bob's mouth, and pat yourself on the back!

"Stained Glass" stick-ons for windows, mirrors, and more

2009-04-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

If you've wandered through your local craft store lately, you may have come across an aisle full of window paint. And, you may have wondered, "Does that stuff really work?" "Is it just for kids?" "Can I do something I wouldn't mind displaying in my house, without breaking the bank?" The answer to these questions is "Yes", "no," and "yes." :)
The finished product can look quite elegant, and will last for years. And actually, I wouldn't let very young kids anywhere near it: terribly messy! :)

This isn't a traditional tutorial today, because the concept is mostly self-explanatory. What it is is a compilation of tips and tricks for getting the best, cheapest results from window paint.

The basic idea of this stuff is that you use "faux leading" to outline your desired image "stained glass" style either directly on a window, or on a piece of plastic. Then you fill in the design with the colored paints. Once dry, it will stay on your window or other object more or less permanently, but can be removed easily enough - often without damaging the "sticker," which can theoretically be re-used.

Materials
* "Leading" paint for outlines (See tips below)
* Several colors of transparent paint
* Large piece of slick plastic, like a Ziplock bag
* Images to paint, printed out or drawn on ordinary paper
* paper towels or rags for cleanup
* Large pin for clearing blockages, popping bubbles, etc.

The most popular brand of window paint is "Gallery Glass," by Plaid.
DecorArt also makes a type called "Liquid Rainbow," and Sandylion has a variety as well, although I think I got all mine from a kit: haven't seen it for sale individually. Gallery Glass costs about $3 or a little less per tube. You can get a Lot of mileage out of one tube. Liquid Rainbow is a little cheaper.

Materials and Money Tips
First Tip: Stick with the Gallery Glass, especially if you plan to paint directly on a window instead of making "stickers" to apply later. Liquid Rainbow looks fine when it dries, but is much runnier as a rule. Sandylion's looks fine too, but the tube tips are badly designed and its hard to get it to come out even after carefully clearing "clots."
If you end up with a variety of brands, they can be mixed and matched in the same "sticker": there's no serious difference once dry.

Tip Two: Skip the "leading." It is hard to use, tends to come out in a thicker line than I want for anything vaguely intricate, and costs too much. Instead, use "Scribbler" brand fabric paint in black, gold, or pewter - or your choice! The tubes are easy to work with, they go a long ways, and usually cost around $1. It dries pretty quickly: you only need to let it rest about 15 minutes before filling in with color.

Tip Three: Skip the expensive and unnecessary "Styrene Blank." Instead, use a clear plastic food storage bag, preferably the heavier freezer style. I used a gallon Ziplock myself. Cut it open to give yourself more surface area. It is actually much easier to remove stickers from this surface than the official Styrene sheet Plaid wants to sell you.

Tip Four: The color you see in the tube and when applying the wet paint and the color you see when dry are two different colors. Take the time to make a reference chart: get a piece of wax paper or other plastic and apply pea-sized blobs of each color, labeled with the color name and/or number.

Technique Tips
Tip Five: Take your time with the outlining step, and do some practice first. Eventually you'll learn to keep all your lines going in the same direction so you don't smear when turning a tight curve, and you'll learn the sweet spot between hovering the tip of the tube too far above the plastic (causes blots) and actually having it in contact (smears.)

On that note, you will want to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew in terms of image complexity. When selecting an image, imagine you're using a full sized Sharpie. Could it get around all those little lines?

Tip Six: When filling in with color, as long as you've waited for the outline to be mostly dry it doesn't matter, much, if you overflow a line. The colored paint dries transparent and won't obscure the leading.

Tip Seven: Be sure to fill clear to the edges with the colored paint. It's easy to leave little gaps near the corners. Not only do these look bad, but they also make the "stickers" harder to remove from the plastic: they tend to rip apart.

Tip Eight: Clear clots of dried paint in the applicator tubes with a long quilting straight pin. Sometimes you've got to simply pull them out - be careful of the mess! Other times you can at least temporarily push them back into the tube.

Tip Nine: Both major brands can get a bit runny and come out of the tube faster than you want, leaving too much paint on the surface. This evening I used the ball end of the same quilting pin I was using to clear clots as essentially a ballpoint pen. I put the tube down and used the pin to spread the excess paint around into all the corners. Worked perfectly. (You can also use the pin to pop any bubbles that come out when you ignore the precaution to not shake the tube!)

Here are some 1/2 done images of rubber ducks. The paint is still quite wet. Note I overran one of the lines in the center duck's bill pretty badly. This will look just fine when dry.

Cautionary Tips
Tip Ten: Cover your work area, and wear short sleeves.
Tip Eleven: Don't let paper or fabric come in long contact with a finished piece: it will eventually stick and mess things up. Even more importantly, don't let two stickers come in contact with each other: you probably won't get them apart again without damage.
Tip Twelve: Do not allow your cats to walk through a half-dried sheet of stickers and track the paint onto the kitchen table. Do not ask me how I know this. :)

Ideas for what to paint
* Your bathroom. Make a matched set of tumblers, toothbrush holders, soap dishes, etc. Add similar designs to the mirror. The stickers also adhere nicely to tile or plastic in the shower.

* Candle holders. My favorite technique is to draw random shapes with the "leading" and then fill them in with color for a true stained glass look. My second favorite technique is to turn a cheap tealight holder upside down and drizzle several colors of paint over it. Simple and surprisingly pretty. So called "Catholic candles" (tall, low priced, in glass jars) are great canvases too.

* Large pillar candles. The paint will stick to the wax just fine

* Sun catchers

* Windows, of course. Even car windows - just keep it small and subtle, for safety's sake! :)

* Glass table tops. I have a very nice Backgammon board painted onto a circular table top.

* Lamp shades. I have decorated multiple cheap torchiere-style lamps from Target. I usually paint directly on the shade, to avoid trouble with curves, and seal with spray sealer to make it more permanent. Ikea's frosted glass block lamps would also decorate beautifully!

* Night Lights. Use a small plain plastic picture frame as the base, and glue on a Christmas light clip to attach it around the neck of a standard night light.
Alternately, use a thinner plastic (try upcycling packaging materials or even 2 liter bottles), cut your shape out entirely, and glue directly to a nightlight base.

* Picture frames. Start with a plain, free-standing plastic frame and add an interesting border or small elements.

* The stickers will even adhere to painted doors and flat walls, and I haven't had trouble removing one yet. In other words, use your imagination!

Dispenser for Diaper Disposal Bags

2009-04-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, you've got this nasty used disposable diaper (or, who knows, even a cloth one!) and you're in the car and you've got to get this thing packaged in some scent-proof manner before you and the rest of your passengers gag. Obviously someone else has had this problem, because any baby store or aisle will happily sell you a roll of 25 powder scented bags specifically designed for this problem for about $3. They'll also sell you a funky duck-shaped dispenser that looks to me like it would always be at the bottom of my diaper bag.
I thought it would be more useful to have a fabric cover that clipped on the outside of the bag, so I figured out one.

Here's what we're making:

Materials:

* Roll of diaper disposal bags for verifying size
* Fabric square, about 7 x 7 inches. (Note mine is bigger than it needs to be)
* Scrap of elastic (optional: you could use ribbon or thread)
* Ribbon or cord for making the clip loop and tying shut the top of the bag
* clip of some sort - a small carabiner would work
* cord lock (optional: you could always just tie it.)
* Thread to match

Tools:
* Scissors
* Sewing Machine (although I sewed my first model by hand - there's not much to it.)
* A few straight pins
* A safety pin

Skills:
* Basic sewing and sewing machine operation

Instructions:
1. Fold and sew a roughly 1/2 inch seam on two edges of the fabric square.

2. Fold and sew two slightly larger seams, which will become the channels for the elastic (at the bottom) and ribbon closure (at the top.) Mine were about 3/4 inch. Use a scant seam allowance to leave as much room as possible for the ribbon or elastic.

3. Attach the ribbon loop for the clip, and the clip itself if you're using one of the style I had.
I used about 4 inches of 3/4 inch ribbon, with the ends folded in so as to not leave a raw edge. I attached it about 2 inches down from the "top" channel. If I were doing it again, I would make the loop a little smaller and attach it a little further up.

4. Wrap your cover around the roll of bags, wrong side out. There will be an overlap. Place two pins, one about 1 inch below the top channel, and the other 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the bottom channel.

5. Slip the roll of bags out, and flatten your cover, placing the fold right where the overlap ends on the "right" side of the cover. Sew a seam with scant allowance starting at the very top of the cover and to the first pin. Backstitch. Repeat at the bottom.

6. With the cover still inside out, carefully cut two slits in the bottom channel, one on each side of the seam. Using a safety pin, thread a scrap of elastic (or ribbon) through. Cinch, tie a good knot and cut off the excess.

7. Turn the cover right-side out. Carefully cut two slits in the top channel. You should probably use some "no-fray," or even stitch a button hole around these since they're on the outside.

8. Thread in your ribbon or cord, using the safety pin.

9. Tie a knot at the end of the ribbon, and attach the cord lock if using.

10. All done! Slip in your roll of bags and pull the first one out of the slot in the side. Attach to your diaper bag and always have it at your finger tips!

Very "quick n' dirty" tutorial for "Pee Pee TeePee"

2009-04-10T13:59:00.001-07:00

Some disclaimers right up front:
1) Definitely not an original idea. You can buy these lots of places - you can even pay $10 for a commercial version at Babies R Us.
2) There's a better tutorial for a more professional looking option at Little Birdie Secrets.
Mine is quicker and easier, but Not more professional!
3) I am not very good at the whole serger thing yet. My "pattern" uses serger. I will also include instructions for using a regular sewing machine at the end.
OK, on to the tutorial.
This is what we're making:

It's basically a small cone to place proactively at changing time on the little "sprinkler" your baby boy comes with. Better than a face full of pee, right? ;)

Materials:
* 1 10x5 inch piece of flannel. If you want to make yourself a larger version (this size is probably a little small for older babies) you'll need a little more flannel
* Thread to match (unlike mine!)

Tools:
* Sewing machine or serger
* Scissors
* CD to use as a template, or larger bowl / jar.

Skills: Basic sewing machine or serger operation

Instructions:
1. Using a CD as a template (A CD is 5 inches in diameter, BTW!), cut two circles of flannel.

2. Cut an arc out of your circles approx. 1/6 of the total. I just eyeballed this: precision is rather unnecessary.

You can see how it folds into a little teepee shape here:

3. Serge the edges of the arc together

4. Now serge a perfect, pretty circle all around the edge. (Sarcasm intentional. Like I said, serging is a new skill to me!)
Brown thread would certainly make it look better though - but I'm not re-threading that thing, are you?!?

Alternate directions for using a standard sewing machine:

Steps 1 and 2 as above. You probably will want a slightly larger circle, though, to permit greater seam allowances.
3. Place right sides together, if using a print . Using a scant seam allowance, sew all the way around the diameter of the circle.

4. Turn the piece inside out. Match the two edges of the arc, and sew - again, using a scant seam allowance.

Changing Pad

2009-03-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

From Annette's Crafts

We're having a baby boom in my family: I have three to sew for all coming between May and June. This changing pad is for my niece-to-be. The bonus here is that the pad features a "pillow pocket" that may be stuffed with spare diapers. Carrying case and comfort feature all in one! It's also big enough to be used as a lap pad or floor pad for a small baby.

Materials:
* 1 piece of flannel 18 x 36 inches long
* 1 piece of solid colored flannel 18 x 45 inches long: this is the one that forms the pillow, so it needs to not have a right and wrong side, unless you want to sew on another 9 x 18 inch panel.
(You need roughly 1/2 a yard each, assuming the flannel is 45 inches wide.)
* A piece of batting 18 x 36 inches, and/or better a piece of water resistant, washable fabric to sandwich in.
* Your choice of blanket binding or narrower bias tape, at least 3 yards
* Thread to match
* Optional: Snap or velcro for fastening the finished pad shut.

Tools:
* Sewing machine
* Scissors
* Cutting mat and rotary cutter (optional)
* Pins

Skills:
* Basic sewing machine operation

Instructions:
1. Create a sandwich of your two pieces of fabric, batting, and (optional) washable waterproof fabric. The 45 inch long piece of fabric goes on the bottom, and the other two line up with its bottom edge.
Place the right sides out: you're sewing this "upside up."
2. Sew straight across at the 9, 18, and 36 inch marks from the bottom of the shorter fabric. This is where the fold lines are. You don't need to sew at 27 inches, since this is where the pillow pocket attaches.
3. (This is where it gets tricky) Pin the blanket binding or bias tape, starting on the top right, around the edges of your sandwich.
The thing to keep in mind is that you want to leave one side of the "pillow pocket" open. When I got to the right-hand side of the pad, I folded the pillow pocket down and pinned the binding over all layers so the edge would be closed when I stitched.
IMPORTANT: you don't want a raw edge when you sew the 18 inch side of the pillow, so remember to turn it under a 1/2 inch or so on the right edge when pinning down the binding.
You could, of course, chose to leave both edges of the pillow open which would be just slightly easier to stitch since you wouldn't have to fold anything over.
4. Stitch around three sides of the pad, starting with the top left and finishing on the top right, making sure to sew the pocket shut.
If you're using the extra wide blanket binding like me (note: I would probably chose a narrower one if doing this again) you may wish to sew it down twice: use a zig-zag stitch about 1/4 inch from the inner edge, and a straight one dead center.
5. Now, turn down the pillow pocket the rest of the way across, making sure to fold at least a 1/2 inch under. Sew across, completing the pocket.
6. Optional: attach Velcro strips or snaps to fasten shut the pad when folded in quarters. I didn't bother, since this will usually be stuffed in a diaper bag, and possibly folded in 1/2 across the 18 inch dimension as well. If you chose to use Velcro, be sure to attach the soft "loop" side to the side of the pad baby will be lying on.

From Annette's Crafts

That's it!

Quilted Lovie with Tags

2009-02-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

This isn't a full-fledged tutorial, because I didn't take pictures of all the steps. But it's pretty simple if you have a basic comfort level with sewing and/or quilting.

From Tarkheena Crafts

I made this "Lovie" for my soon-to-be born son out of a few extra flannel squares from another project. Here are the basic steps

Materials:
* About 1/4 yard each of fabric in at least two contrasting colors. I used flannel.
* Less than 1 ft each of several colors of grosgrain ribbon, or other ribbon you don't mind a child chewing on.
* Thread to match

Tools:
* Sewing machine
* Scissors
* Cutting mat and rotary cutter (optional)
* Pins

Skills:
* Basic sewing machine operation

From Tarkheena Crafts

Instructions:
1. Cut 9 6x6 squares using either scissors or a rotary cutter.
2. Sew into a 3x3 grid, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. (Remember, right sides together. Press your seams if you're a perfectionist; just sew them flat otherwise!)
3. Fold your square into a triangle, still keeping right sides together.
4. Pin in the "taggies." Cut ribbon into approx. 2 inch lengths, and fold in half. Remembering to put the loop *inside* the triangle (since you're sewing this in-side out!) pin each tag between the two layers of fabric, 2-3 per square. Leave less than 1/2 inch of loop exposed: you don't want too big a loop to catch baby's fingers.
5. Sew the two sides of the triangle together, leaving at least 3 inches at the last square for turning
6. Turn the piece inside-in
7. Carefully "blind-stitch" the turning hole shut. I did this by machine, but by hand is often easier.
8. Optional: "quilt" the finished product by sewing a straight line across the diagonal of each square.

That's it! Now find a baby to cuddle your new toy!

Options and Ideas for Improvement:
* Use several fabrics of different textures
* Sew a jingle-bell inside
* Add a crackly bit of nylon or other plastic inside one or two squares for extra noise. Just keep in mind that some options won't be machine washable

Christmas Soaps

2008-11-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

Fancy, scented soaps make a great hostest gift, co-worker gift, party favor, or stocking stuffer. Sew some "amazing three seam bags" to go with them and you have a quick and elegant Christmas gift.
When you use melt and pour soap, this becomes one of the simplest crafts ever: it would be a great one to do with an older child who can be trusted with hot things.
It is so simple, in fact, that I almost hesitate to create a tutorial, but I will focus on tips and money saving ideas.

Materials
* 2 lb block of melt-and-pour soap.
You can get this a Jo-Ann's or Michael's. Regular price is about $10, but both of these fine stores release 40% coupons about twice a month, and since the product is nearly never on sale this is a great use for your discount.
My favorite variety is the Avacado glycerine from "Life of the Party," and I've also enjoyed the Olive Oil glycerine.
Tip: If you plan to put anything in your soap other than scent, stear clear of the 10 lb brick of "Moisturizing Clear:" All your additives go to the bottom. Stick with one that says "suspension formula."
* Soap Scent - I love the Eucalyptus Mint or Peppermint for Christmas soaps
* Additives, if desired. I like to use finely ground oatmeal (use your coffee grinder or "magic bullet"), cornmeal, or peppermint leaves (buy some cheap peppermint tea and cut open the bags!).

Tools
* Butter knife - use this rather than a spoon to avoid waste.
* Pyrex 1 C container. Seriously, use a good pyrex measuring cup here, unless you want to burn yourself
* Molds: I used silicone cupcake trays. These are perfect for soap because they release so easily. Rigid molds will give you nothing but trouble. The plastic ones they sell for the purpose at the craft store are fine, but not as easy as silicone. (Hint: Check to Dollar Tree or dollar bins at Target. I got my Snowman mold last year for $2.50 at Target. I waited for a sale at Jo Ann's to get my Snowflake mold for about $7.50)

Instructions
1. For three bars of soap (assuming you are using a cupcake mold similar to the ones shown), use the butter knife to cut 6 blocks of soap. Place in the pyrex measuring cup. (More than 6 won't fit easily in your 1 C container)

2. Microwave for 1 minute.
3. Remove from microwave and stir with the knife, breaking up any large chunks if possible.
4. Microwave about 15 seconds more, watching carefully.

5. Add your scent. A rule of thumb is about 2 drops per soap block, or 12 drops for your whole batch.

6. If desired, add about a tablespoon of finely ground oatmeal or a teaspoon (1/2 a tea bag) of peppermint leaves. Stir well with the knife.
7. Carefully pour into your molds, filling each about 2/3 full.

8. Wait at Least an hour before attempting to release - the label on the soap container suggests 20 to 40 minutes, but this isn't really long enough. Resist the urge to refrigerate as it can make the soap "sweat."
9. Wrap in a scrap of Glad Press-n-Seal for ease, or regular plastic wrap if you have more patience than I. Place in your "Three Seam Bag" and you're done!

Vintage Granny-Square Christmas Stocking

2008-11-29T12:26:00.001-08:00

Ah, the Granny Square: most loved, and most reviled, of all the common crochet patterns. In the 60's and 70's you could find them in projects as diverse as placemats, vests, and afghans. Overuse in some truly regrettable designs has cast a pall over this workhorse of the crochet world, but there is still a place for them in my heart at least!
My mother's mother, "Grammy" to us kids, was rarely to be found without a crochet hook in her hand, even in the hottest of Fresno summers, and granny squares were her stock and trade. When I was a wee lass of 7 or so I begged her to teach me. I got as far as a decent chain, but by the next time she came to visit I'd forgotten the technique. A few attempts, and a few years, later, the lessons finally stuck and I had mastered the venerable square plus a few more common stitches. Over my teenage years I actually turned out a couple of good sized afghans, but then I put away my hook and didn't even think about crochet for the better part of a decade. Then I got married. Christmas came along, and I realized a serious problem: My new husband did not have a stocking. More importantly, he didn't have a stocking that matched everyone else's! Roughly the time my middle brother was born, Grammy made the four of us matching stockings, and added one for my youngest brother a few years later. But by 2007 she'd long since gone to her reward, and I was the only one in the immediate family to whom she'd passed the torch - if not her pattern.
But since the pattern was made up of nothing by granny squares, it wasn't all that difficult to reconstruct. Here, for posterity, is how to make a granny-square Christmas stocking. Maybe you can start your own tradition!

Materials
* One skein each cheap red and white yarn. Red Heart Super Saver or Caron's is just fine: no-one is going to be wearing these! I made four stockings out of a one pound ball.
* Optional: Several pins or other flat Christmas-y shapes for decorating the finished stocking.

Tools
* Crochet hook. I used a size "G" but that's not critical as long as you don't change mid project.
* Yarn needle
* Scissors

Skills
* Chain, single, and double crochet stitches
* Simple sewing to join squares

Instructions
(Note: Blogger cuts my embedded pictures off! Mostly you can see what's going on, but if you want the full sized uncut pics, you can find them here)
1. Crochet 14 granny squares in red with two rows each, and then a full row of Double Crochet around the edge. (Please feel free to Google for the granny square pattern. Basic directions without a lot of funny abbreviations appear below.)
2. Crochet 1 granny "triangle," which is just like a square but with three sets of three double crochet and chain groupings instead of four.

3. Construct the toe. Using your yarn needle and a length of red yarn, join three squares at right angles into a heart-shape. (I find that one sewing stitch every two crochet stitches is adequate, with a few extra at corners. Be careful to match up your corners and centers: the rest will take care of itself.)

4. Fold all of the corners to meet in the center, and stitch along the sides.

5. Add two more squares as shown below

6. Your granny "triangle" is the heel. Attach as shown below. When complete you will have a flat edge that is one and a half squares wide.

7. Construct the ankle by joining three squares into a strip and joining into a loop. Repeat three times, then join each loop together taking care to alternate which side of the stocking has the folded square. Think of them as bricks, offset on each row for strength and visual appeal. (By the way, there's no way to do this in a single unbroken line of stitches. Resign yourself to tying off frequently and moving to the next seam.)

8. Join the ankle to the foot, again making sure that the long edge of one of the ankle squares joins across the half-square of the triangle and the first half of the full square.

9. Shape the toe by folding in the square corners and sewing across with a few stitches.

10. With your stocking complete, crochet the cuff in white in about 12 to 15 rows of single-crochet. Count carefully, because mistakes will show! (If your accuracy is as bad as mine, you might start your line of stitches on the back of the stocking where mistakes will be less visible.)

If desired, do a scalloped edge on the last row. I did one single-crochet, one double crochet, one triple crochet, another double and another single, then a couple of slip stitches. The math didn't work out, but I hid the mismatches on the back.

11. As desired, decorate the finished product. I sewed jingle bells on the tips of the scallops for my niece. Grammy's original stockings had intricate felt shapes of Christmas trees, candy canes, wreathes, and Santas. I made due with purchased pins from the dollar bin at Jo-Ann's. I have it in mind to try and simulate her felt designs on this year's stockings, though. If I do, that will be a separate tutorial.

My biggest challenge was placing the name on the cuff. Grammy managed a beautiful embroidered name with green yarn in a cursive font. I couldn't begin to mimic it. I I made due on my husband's sock with a piece of aida cloth tacked down to the cuff. You might try purchased felt letters if your names are short enough. I plan to commission names satin-stitch embroidered on felt from a friend with a good machine for the rest of my socks.

Basic Granny-Square instructions
(Assumes knowledge of standard crochet stitches. Refer to the pictures above if you're a visual learner like me!)

Note: These instructions are for three-row (3 round) squares. Most of my stockings are actually made with two-row squares, which are smaller and faster. Omit steps 5-6 for two-row squares.
1. (Foundation Ring) Chain six and join in a circle with a slip stitch.
2. (Round 1) Chain up three, then double-crochet two through the loop.
3. Chain three, then double-crochet three more through the loop. Repeat twice more for a total of four sets.
4. Join with a slip stitch. This is the first layer of your square, with the sets of three chain stitches forming the corners.
5. (Round 2) Chain up three, turn, then double-crochet two more in the first "corner." Chain three, then double-crochet three more in the same "corner."
6. Chain three, then repeat in the other three corners, placing two sets of three double-crochets joined by three chains in each hole. Join with a slip stitch.
7. (Round 3) Double-crochet in each stitch from previous round, with 5 double-crochets in each corner. Specifically, Chain up three, turn, and then double-crochet *three* more in the first hole.
8. Double-crochet in each stitch of the double-crochets below. Proceed along the entire square, placing *five* double-crochets in each corner of the square. Join with a slip stitch, snip your yarn, and weave in the tail.
I can turn one of this out in about 10-15 minutes. Grammy was, of course, much faster.

The Amazing 3-Seam Gift Bag

2008-11-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

I admitted to myself recently that I Really dislike wrapping presents. However, at the moment I quite enjoy sewing. So I had the brilliant idea to sew gift bags for my little treasures rather than wrapping them in irritating and ultimately disposable paper. After a few attempts, here is the pattern I came up with.

What you will need:
Supplies
* Cotton fabric in a pretty print. I love to use fat quarters from Jo Ann's, which go on sale for $1.
* About 10 to 12 inches of narrow ribbon
* Thread
Tools
* Sewing machine
* Iron
* Scissors or rotary cutter and mat

Step 1: Iron your fabric. Sorry, I hate it too, but it's necessary. I won't make you press your seams, though!

Step 2: Measure what you want to wrap. You will need a piece of fabric about 2x as wide and about 2-3 inches taller than your item depending on how "fat" the item is. In my case, I was wrapping small home-made soaps, so my fabric piece ended up about 7 inches by 9. (Incidentally, you can make 6 gift bags of this size from a single fat quarter.) This will give you a bag approx. 6 inches tall by 4 inches wide.

Step 3: Cut your fabric piece

Step 4: Across the long (9 inch) side of the fabric, make an approx. 1 inch fold. This will be the channel for your tie string. Finger-press, and pin if desired.

Step 5: Just under the fold (which will be approx. 2 inches down), cut a small, approx. 3/4 inch slit on each side of the fabric.

Step 6: Now, unfold your fabric, and then fold in the "tabs" you just created with your tiny slits.

Step 7: Slip your draw-string ribbon into the fold, then re-fold the top channel. Pin on both sides.

Step 8: Sew along the channel, taking care not to stitch over the ribbon!

Step 9: Now, fold the bag in half, right-sides facing, and line up the edges. (If you're making a larger bag, you may want to pin it.) Starting *just below* the channel and exactly even with its edge, sew down the edge of the bag.

Step 10: Turn the corner and stitch the bottom of the bag.

Step 11: If desired, trim the seams. If you are more perfectionistic than me, press them to one side. Now turn the bag right-side out, and you're done!

Welcome to Tarkheena Crafts

2008-11-27T11:23:00.000-08:00

What, another crafting blog? Aren't there already at least 43 gazillion of those?
Yes, probably so. Who cares? Every crafter, and therefore every craft is unique. I don't expect to ever gather a huge "angry chicken" level following, but I'll amuse myself and maybe a few friends posting the crafts that I've "perfected," complete with tutorials.
A bit about my crafting style. The word "perfected' is in quotes above for a good reason. While I am a perfectionist in many ways, I am also all about "good enough" in most of my crafting, cooking, and (let's be fair) cleaning endeavors. I love shortcuts. I hate ironing. I prefer to measure once and cute twice (or three, or four) times. So you're not going to find things here that demand absolute precision and accuracy in all steps. In other words, no quilts!
Right now I am in a sewing mode. I pulled out Mom's ancient but very functional sewing machine a few months back and have been having fun ever since. More recently I got Grandma's (also ancient) serger serviced, so you may see a few projects featuring rolled hems.
Some day you may also see a crochet project or two, and who knows what else. I've done it all at least once, except glass blowing. (I'm pyrophobic!)
With that, On to the first project!